• BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 months ago

    Have to pay the prisoners a prevailing wage in the USA when working for private businesses.

    Edit: You don’t need to pay them the prevailing wage when they are not working for private companies so. If they are cooking or cleaning in the prison or making license plates they make peanuts.

    Seems China underpays their prison labourers but they should get paid. Should.

    Edit 2: I kept looking and there is a lack of evidence from what I wrote other than the US government saying they get a prevailing wage, nobody seems to give an exact number of what they make. China actually gives a number. 600 yuan a month in 2019. Take that as you will.

    • AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      That prevailing wage? Most prison laborers in America make less than $0.50 an hour If they’re even paid at all, and are severely punished if they try to take a sick day.

      I can’t find anything that specifically says that Walmart, Wendy’s, McDonald’s or any of the other ones pays even minimum wage to prison laborers, but these businesses do get a $2,400 tax credit for each work release inmate they employ. The work release inmates are probably paid a real wage because they count as real people but I have trouble believing they would ever pay more than they absolutely had to for an inmate’s labor.

      • BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        Thats correct when it’s not private industry. So if they make license plates as that’s government owned they can pay them whatever they want.

        I’ll throw an edit in my comment. Thought I made it clear enough.

        • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          I suggest you update your information, because there are plenty of inmates working for less than prevailing wage in the US.

    • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      It came out a couple years ago that inmates in my state were raising goats and making goat cheese for Whole Foods. The wage for prisoners here is $2/day. There’s a state somewhere to my east where prisoners work at Burger King for similar wages.