SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WJPF) — Governor JB Pritzker has signed a bill into law that increases the penalty for wage theft. 

House Bill 118 was signed into law Friday and takes effect immediately.

Illinois Department of Labor Assistant Director Jason Keller says the new law increases the damages employers are assessed if they haven’t paid workers fairly from 2% to 5% of the amount of monthly underpayment.

“The reason that’s important is that we need a little bit of a bigger penalty to make sure that employers adhere to the law and take it seriously for these workers…for instance, like a minimum wage claim, if they paid under the minimum wage or if they’re not paid overtime, we would have a penalty for that.”

Wage payment complaints can be filed online.

KIM HOWARD with the Illinois Office of Communication and Information contributed to this report.