1. Labor Commissioner's Office

Workers’ Rights Enforcement Grant

For more information on the Workers’ Rights Enforcement Grant Program, join the Labor Commissioner’s Office virtual information session on April 22, 2024, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Click here to join informational session.

The Workers’ Rights Enforcement Grant is a new funding source to protect workers from wage theft and other exploitative practices in the workplace. Grants will be competitively awarded to California “public prosecutors” to develop and implement a wage theft enforcement program.

A “public prosecutor” is a district attorney, city attorney, county council or any other city or county prosecutor who has established a workers’ rights enforcement program.

The state has allocated $18 million to the Department of Industrial Relations, to administer this grant application. There will be two annual grant award cycles totaling $8,550,000 each in 2024-2025 (Year 1) and 2025-2026 (Year 2). A maximum of $750,000 per applicant per year may be awarded, on a competitive basis. All applications will be considered public documents and subject to a Public Records Request.

Grant funds can only be used for staff salaries and benefits. No other items will be funded, other than the noted annual audit costs.

Timeline

Year 1: Grant Application Timeframe
            August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025

Application Open: February 29, 2024
Application Close: April 1, 2024 at 5 PM
Application Inquiries: Email questions to WageTheftGrant@dir.ca.gov
Application Proposals Due: Email to WageTheftGrant@dir.ca.gov by 5 PM on April 1, 2024
Application Awards Announcement: May 1, 2024
Application Funding Period: August 1, 2024 - July 31, 2025
Annual Impact Report: Due July 31, 2025
Annual Audit: Due Oct 31, 2025. Up to 5% of grant award can be used to pay for this audit.

Year 2: Grant Application Timeframe
August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026

Application Open: May 1, 2025
Application Close: June 2, 2025 at 5 PM
Application Inquiries: Email questions to WageTheftGrant@dir.ca.gov
Application Proposals Due: Email to WageTheftGrant@dir.ca.gov by 5 PM on June 2, 2025
Application Awards Announcement: July 1, 2025
Application Funding Period: August 1, 2025 – July 31, 2026
Annual Impact Report: Due July 31, 2026
Annual Audit: Due Oct 30, 2026. Up to 5% of grant award can be used to pay for this audit.

Funding Details

Year 1 Funding for August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025: $8,550,000

Year 2 Funding for August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026: $8,550,000

Maximum Funding Awards: $750,000 per year per recipient

Fund Uses: Staff Salaries/Benefits and Annual Audit Costs

Resources

The following list of items are required to complete your application including instructions, forms to be filled out and questions to answer. Your Grant Application can be a maximum of 10 pages. The required Annual Impact Report can be a maximum of 5 pages. All inquiries and/or submissions are to be sent by email to WageTheftGrant@dir.ca.gov.

Resources to apply:

April/strong> 2024