---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS -- PAYMENT OF WAGES (Increases the criminal penalties for wage theft and employee misclassification.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS -- PAYMENT OF WAGES (Increases the criminal penalties for wage theft and employee misclassification.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2023"
identifier: "HB 5902"
citation: "Rhode Island HB 5902 (2023)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Attorney General", "Criminal Offense", "Employment Security", "Fees", "Labor", "Wages"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bennett", "Caldwell", "Craven", "Morales"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2023-03-01"
last_action: "2023-06-22"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4fca0a62-c6d8-4c5e-a139-a0ee9b3870cc"
source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
source_hash: "6a754aa1a2bd542e523db456cb2246e23ab2151b28a6bca2bea45e0bd52395f4"
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-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island HB 5902 (2023) — AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS -- PAYMENT OF WAGES (Increases the criminal penalties for wage theft and employee misclassification.)

## Version chain

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

1. **5902 SUB A as amended** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText23/HouseText23/H5902Aaa.pdf)

## Votes

- AS AMENDED — **70–2** (pass) · lower
- PASSAGE OF AMENDMENT — **68–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bennett — primary (person)
- Caldwell — primary (person)
- Craven — primary (person)
- Morales — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-03-01** 03/01/2023 Introduced, referred to House Judiciary `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-04-21** 04/21/2023 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration
- **2023-04-22** 04/22/2023 Committee postponed at request of sponsor (04/25/2023)
- **2023-05-05** 05/05/2023 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (05/11/2023)
- **2023-05-11** 05/11/2023 Committee recommended measure be held for further study `committee-failure`
- **2023-06-09** 06/09/2023 Scheduled for consideration (06/12/2023)
- **2023-06-12** 06/12/2023 Proposed Substitute `substitution`
- **2023-06-12** 06/12/2023 Committee recommends passage of Sub A `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-06-13** 06/13/2023 Placed on House Calendar (06/14/2023) `reading-3`
- **2023-06-14** 06/14/2023 House passed Sub A as amended (floor amendment) `passage`
- **2023-06-14** 06/14/2023 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/15/2023) `reading-3`
- **2023-06-15** 06/15/2023 Senate passed Sub A as amended in concurrence `passage`
- **2023-06-19** 06/19/2023 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2023-06-22** 06/22/2023 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4fca0a62-c6d8-4c5e-a139-a0ee9b3870cc`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).