government regulators must work with community stakeholders who have direct knowledge of ongoing violations of Federal wage and hour requirements and who are in a position to prevent such violations. (26) Partnerships between regulators, workers, nonprofit organizations, and businesses can increase compliance by educating workers about their rights, collecting evidence, reporting violations, identifying noncompliant employers, and modeling good practices. (27) Partnerships between regulators, workers, nonprofit organizations, and businesses have been successful in combating wage theft. In 2006, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement of the State of California created a janitorial enforcement team to work closely with a local janitorial watchdog organization. As of 2015, the partnership had resulted in countless administrative, civil, and criminal actions against employers and in the collection of more than $68,000,000 in back pay for janitorial workers. (28) The Comptroller General of the United States has recommended that the Department of Labor identify ways to leverage its resources to better combat wage theft by improving services provided through partnerships. 3. Purposes The purposes of this Act are to prevent wage theft and facilitate the recovery of stolen wages by— (1) strengthening the penalties for engaging in wage theft