Owens Co-Sponsors Legislation to Ensure American Workers Get Paid 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Burgess Owens (UT-04), Chairman of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee, co-sponsored the Ensuring Workers Get PAID Act to ensure America’s workers receive the wages they are owed and help employers comply with the law.

“The Biden administration’s decision to scrap the PAID program will burden small businesses and employees in my district and across the country with an inefficient and outdated employee compensation system,” said Rep. Owens. “I strongly support the Ensuring Workers Get PAID Act to restore the PAID program, offload burdensome regulations for small businesses, and compensate hard working Americans promptly.”

The PAID program has a proven track record of success for workers, employers, and taxpayers. According to a DOL report between April 2018 and September 2019:

• The average back wages paid to employees per case for PAID cases were more than four times the average back wages paid to employees per traditional investigation;
• the average back wages paid to employees per enforcement hour for PAID cases were more than 10 times greater than the average back wages paid to employees per enforcement hour for traditional investigations, and
• self-audits through the PAID program averaged 19 hours per case for Wage and Hour investigators as compared to 41 hours per traditional compliance action.

The full text of the legislation is available here.

###