Employees across the country are not getting paid what they are owed, and critics say the government has been toothless in helping, but Republicans are making it worse.
In a quiet but deeply consequential move, the U.S. Department of Labor—now under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer—has just pulled one of the few remaining teeth it had for biting back against wage theft.
In the bureaucratic language of power, the Wage and Hour Division issued “Field Assistance Bulletin 2025-3,” a dry document that declares federal labor investigators can no longer demand liquidated damages—essentially penalty payments equal to stolen wages—during administrative investigations.
In plain English: If your boss shortchanges your paycheck, the Department of Labor won’t demand they pay anything beyond what they stole unless you’re willing to take them to court.
This change comes from a Republican administration with a well-documented record of siding with employers over workers.
Trump, whose first term was marked by regulatory rollbacks and corporate-friendly policies, has wasted little time in his return to the White House before targeting labor enforcement tools that protect the working class.
Here in New Jersey, where service workers, warehouse employees, and immigrant laborers clock long hours for low pay, the effect could be immediate and devastating.
Consider the warehouse workers in Elizabeth and Perth Amboy who’ve filed complaints after being denied overtime, or restaurant staff in Jersey City stiffed on tips and made to work off the clock.
Until today, when the Department of Labor investigated these cases and found violations, it could demand not only the back wages owed but a matching penalty—real money that mattered to workers who were already on the edge.
Now, with FAB 2025-3, that leverage is gone. The agency can still recover stolen wages, but it cannot demand that employers pay a dime more unless the case is dragged into the courts.
That means victims of wage theft—often low-income workers without legal representation—are expected to navigate the costly, exhausting legal system just to get what they are rightfully owed under the law.
This isn’t just a procedural tweak. It’s a retreat. It tells unscrupulous employers that wage theft is a low-risk crime.
Steal now, and if you’re caught, just give back what you took. No interest, no penalty, no deterrent.
In a state like New Jersey, where more than $13 million in stolen wages had to be recovered in just one year by the state Department of Labor, the federal rollback will leave workers more exposed than ever.
This rollback also exposes a deeper rot—an unwillingness to govern in defense of the vulnerable.
Progressive New Jersey Democrat Lisa McCormick is calling on Congress to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to explicitly authorize the U.S. Secretary of Labor to seek liquidated damages—penalty payments equal to the amount of stolen wages—during administrative investigations, a practice that was quietly terminated by the Trump administration’s Department of Labor this week.
“If a boss steals a worker’s wages, there must be swift, serious consequences—not just a slap on the wrist,” said McCormick. “The Department of Labor must have the legal authority to demand full justice for workers, including not just the wages they are owed but an equal amount in liquidated damages. That’s the only way to deter corporate wage theft, which is rampant and largely unpunished in today’s economy.”
Under President Obama, the Labor Department finally began using its authority to seek these damages during investigations. When the Trump administration first tried to rein that in with its 2020 bulletin, labor advocates cried foul.
The Biden administration temporarily reversed course in 2021, restoring the practice. But now, in Trump’s second term, the rollback is back—and permanent unless Congress or the courts intervene.
The rationale offered by the Labor Department is a masterclass in doublespeak. Ending the practice of collecting liquidated damages, it says, will lead to “more fair, timely outcomes.”
Fair for whom? Certainly not for the janitor in Newark whose employer fudged their timecard. Not for the day laborer in Paterson forced to wait weeks for pay that never comes. And certainly not for the single mother in Trenton, scraping together two part-time jobs only to be robbed blind by an employer who knows he can settle for pennies without fear of a fine.
Liquidated damages weren’t just a financial penalty—they were a symbol of moral clarity. They said: If you steal from a worker, there will be consequences. Now, that symbol has been stripped away in the name of administrative tidiness and “dispute resolution.”
Millions of Americans struggle to get by on low wages, often without any benefits such as paid sick leave, a pension, or even health insurance.
Their difficult lives are made immeasurably harder when they do the work they have been hired to do, but their employers refuse to pay, pay for some hours but not others, or fail to pay overtime premiums when employees’ hours exceed 40 in a week.
This country does not suffer from a lack of laws—it suffers from a lack of enforcement and a surfeit of cowardice. Until the Department of Labor reclaims its spine—or the public forces its hand—workers are on their own. In the new Trump era, if you’re poor and cheated, justice is something you’ll have to pay for in court. Good luck with that.