USA: County jail workers not entitled to minimum wage, California Supreme Court rules
"California Supreme Court rules that county jail kitchen workers can go unpaid," 22 April 2024
The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that county jail inmates are not entitled to be paid minimum wage and overtime — or any pay at all, even when doing work for a private contractor...
The law, the justices found, "does not ensure county jail inmates working in the county jail will be paid anything at all."
The case was brought by a group of inmates working in an industrial kitchen at Santa Rita Jail in Northern California. The inmates work without pay for Aramark...
Santa Rita Jail kitchen workers filed a federal class action in 2019. In 2021, a federal judge allowed those claims to proceed. Aramark and Alameda County appealed. The Ninth Circuit then asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in...
The plaintiffs argued the $2-per-eight-hours cap is inapplicable when inmates work for private contractors. But the Supreme Court disagreed...
The ruling allows the county boards of supervisors to set wages for county inmates, though they must adhere to the $2 cap.