“A bill to require coverage of incarcerated workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section expands the definition of "employee" under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA)—which establishes federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards—to include (1) any incarcerated worker employed by a public agency operating the relevant correctional facility and (2) any incarcerated worker employed by a private entity operating such a facility through a public agency contract. The section further modifies the FLSA wage definition to exclude, when calculating wages paid to incarcerated workers, the cost of board, lodging, or other facilities and any amounts deducted for court-imposed fees (e.g., criminal justice administrative fees, court clerk fees). (Thus, incarcerated workers become eligible for FLSA minimum wage and overtime protections, subject to these exclusions.) The section also adds definitions of "incarcerated worker" (covering work in prison programs such as UNICOR and state prison industries), "correctional facility," and "court-imposed fee."