Sponsors
Introduced March 19, 2026 by Cory Anthony Booker · Last progress March 19, 2026
The bill extends FLSA employee protections and clearer employer responsibility to incarcerated facility workers—improving pay and accountability—but will raise public and contractor costs, may shrink inmate work opportunities or be offset by fee garnishments, and requires new administrative oversight.
Incarcerated people who perform facility work would be treated as employees and become eligible for FLSA protections (e.g., minimum wage and overtime), increasing wages and basic labor rights for low-income incarcerated workers.
People employed in privately operated contracted facilities would be recognized as employees of the private operator, clarifying which private employers are responsible for paying wages and complying with labor standards.
Correctional facilities and contractors would face clearer accountability for labor conditions and earnings, which could reduce exploitative unpaid or underpaid work and improve justice for incarcerated workers.
Taxpayers and correctional agencies would likely face higher costs to pay wages, overtime, and employer obligations for incarcerated workers, increasing public expenditures.
Private contractors operating facilities may pass higher labor costs to government through increased contract prices or cut inmate employment opportunities, reducing work availability for incarcerated people and raising contract costs for governments.
Courts and corrections administrators may need new administrative capacity to monitor wage compliance and resolve disputes, creating short-term implementation burdens and administrative costs for state and local governments.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Treats incarcerated or detained individuals who perform work for a correctional facility as "employees" under the FLSA, adding related definitions and clarifying covered fees.
The bill treats people who are incarcerated or detained and who perform work through a correctional facility as "employees" under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). It adds definitions that identify who counts as an incarcerated worker, clarifies that such workers are employed either by the public agency operating the facility or by a private operator when the facility is contracted out, and defines related terms including "correctional facility" and certain "court-imposed fees." By bringing incarcerated workers within the FLSA definition of "employee," the change would extend wage-and-hour protections and employer obligations (such as minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping duties) to many prison work programs and to private contractors operating correctional facilities, while specifying which court-ordered fees are covered or excluded from the definition of court-imposed fees.