Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that increases penalties for employers who commit wage theft.

Highlights:

• Specifies that any employer or agent of an employer who willfully refuses to pay wages, final compensation, or wage supplements, or falsely denies the amount that is due, with intent to secure for himself or another person any underpayment of such indebtedness, or with intent to annoy, harass, oppress, hinder, delay, or defraud the person to who they own, upon conviction, is guilty of the following (Sec. 14):

• For unpaid wages, final compensation, or wage supplements of $5,000 or less, a class 4 felony;

• For unpaid wages, final compensation, or wage supplements of more than $5,000, a class 3 felony; and

• Each day during any violation of this bill will constitute a separate and distinct place.

• Prohibits the State of Illinois from doing any business with a person or business that has admitted guilt or has been found guilty or liable of committing a willful violation of the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, the Minimum Wage Law, the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or any comparable law, statute, or regulation which governs wages or the payment of wages, for 5 years after the date of conviction (Sec. 5).

Full Bill Text