---
type: "Bill"
title: "Nonpayment of wages; investigations."
description: "Nonpayment of wages; investigations. Authorizes the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, if he acquires information during an investigation of a complaint of an employer's failure or refusal to pay wages and that information creates a reasonable belief that other employees of the same employer may not have been paid wages, to investigate whether the employer has failed or refused to make a required payment of wages to other employees. The measure also provides that if the Commissioner finds in the course of such investigation that the employer has committed a violation, the Commissioner may institute proceedings on behalf of any employee against his employer. In such proceedings, the Commissioner is not required to have obtained a written complaint of the violation or the written and signed consent of any employee. This bill is identical to HB 336."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "SB 49"
citation: "Virginia SB 49 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Lionell Spruill, Sr."]
version_count: 3
action_count: 23
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-11-18"
last_action: "2020-03-10"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c2d3f6c6-7923-4786-a2f6-ba5d9a1dadf8"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB49"
source_hash: "165861599bff11d0efe6ca9010ff70fcf06abe4ef8b8a6faf2f2d1ac59cf2054"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 49 (2020) — Nonpayment of wages; investigations.

Nonpayment of wages; investigations. Authorizes the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, if he acquires information during an investigation of a complaint of an employer's failure or refusal to pay wages and that information creates a reasonable belief that other employees of the same employer may not have been paid wages, to investigate whether the employer has failed or refused to make a required payment of wages to other employees. The measure also provides that if the Commissioner finds in the course of such investigation that the employer has committed a violation, the Commissioner may institute proceedings on behalf of any employee against his employer. In such proceedings, the Commissioner is not required to have obtained a written complaint of the violation or the written and signed consent of any employee. This bill is identical to HB 336.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0205)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0205)
2. **Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB49ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB49ER)
3. **Impact statement from DPB (SB49)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB49)

## Votes

- Reported from Commerce and Labor (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage (55-Y 42-N) — **54–42** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Labor and Commerce (14-Y 6-N) — **14–6** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Lionell Spruill, Sr. — primary (person)
- Kaye Kory — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-11-18** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20100694D `introduction`
- **2019-11-18** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-14** Impact statement from DPB (SB49)
- **2020-02-03** Reported from Commerce and Labor (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-05** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-06** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2020-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-06** Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-02-13** Placed on Calendar
- **2020-02-13** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-02-13** Referred to Committee on Labor and Commerce `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-18** Reported from Labor and Commerce (14-Y 6-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-20** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-21** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-21** Passed House (55-Y 42-N) `passage`
- **2020-02-21** VOTE: Passage (55-Y 42-N)
- **2020-02-25** Enrolled
- **2020-02-25** Impact statement from DPB (SB49ER)
- **2020-02-25** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-02-26** Signed by President
- **2020-03-03** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on February 3, 2020
- **2020-03-03** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 10, 2020
- **2020-03-10** Approved by Governor-Chapter 205 (effective 7/1/20) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c2d3f6c6-7923-4786-a2f6-ba5d9a1dadf8`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).