; and, in the year before the survey was conducted, 43 percent of the workers who attempted to address such issues by filing a complaint with their employer or who attempted to form a labor organization experienced retaliation by their employers, including by being fired, suspended, or receiving threats of reductions in their hours or pay. (7) In 2012, State and Federal authorities as well as private attorneys recovered at least $933,000,000 in wage theft enforcement actions, which was nearly 3 times the value of all bank robberies, residential robberies, convenience store and gas station robberies, and street robberies in the United States during that year. (8) A Department of Labor study of wage theft in California and New York found that wage theft deprived workers of 37 percent to 49 percent of their income, pushing at least 15,000 families below the poverty line and driving another 50,000 to 100,000 families deeper into poverty. (9) A study analyzing wage theft claims in the State of Washington from 2009 to 2013 estimated that the total economic cost of wage theft to the State totaled more than $64,000,000 resulting from the lower economic activity and spending of low-wage workers due to their lost wages. (10) A Department of Labor study of wage violations in California and New York found that wage theft deprived families of $5,600,000 in possible earned income tax credits and resulted in a $22,000,000 loss in State tax revenue, a $238,000,000 loss in payroll tax revenue, and a $113,000,000 loss in Federal income tax revenue. (11) Barriers to addressing wage theft continue to exist decades after the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ( 29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.). These barriers have resulted, in significant part, because enforcement of such Act has not worked as Congress originally intended and because many of the provisions of such Act do not include sufficient penalties to discourage violations. Improvements to enforcement and amendments to such Act are necessary to ensure that such Act provides