Fair Wages for Incarcerated Workers Act of 2023

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6293 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6293

   To require coverage of incarcerated workers under the Fair Labor 
             Standards Act of 1938, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 8, 2023

Mr. Cleaver (for himself, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Garcia 
     of Illinois, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Lee of 
 California, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Davis of Illinois, 
  Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, and Ms. Bush) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
                             the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require coverage of incarcerated workers under the Fair Labor 
             Standards Act of 1938, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fair Wages for Incarcerated Workers 
Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. COVERAGE OF INCARCERATED WORKERS UNDER THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS 
              ACT OF 1938.

    Section 3 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203) 
is amended--
            (1) in subsection (e)--
                    (A) in paragraph (2)--
                            (i) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``; 
                        and'' and inserting a semicolon;
                            (ii) in subparagraph (C)(ii)(V), by 
                        striking the period at the end and inserting 
                        ``; and''; and
                            (iii) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(D) any individual employed as an incarcerated 
                worker by a public agency that operates the 
                correctional facility in which such individual is 
                incarcerated or detained.''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(6) The term `employee' includes (in addition to an 
        individual described in paragraph (2)(D)) any individual 
        employed as an incarcerated worker by a private entity that 
        operates, through a contract with a public agency, the 
        correctional facility in which such individual is incarcerated 
        or detained.'';
            (2) in subsection (m)(1), by striking ``any employee.'' and 
        inserting ``any employee: Provided further, That, in the case 
        of an employee who is an incarcerated worker, the cost of 
        board, lodging, or other facilities and any amount taken from 
        amounts paid such incarcerated worker for payment of a court-
        imposed fee shall not be included in the wage paid to such 
        employee.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(z)(1) `Incarcerated worker' means an individual, incarcerated or 
detained in a correctional facility operated by a public agency or by a 
private entity through a contract with a public agency, who performs 
work offered or required by or through the correctional facility, 
including work associated with prison work programs, work release 
programs, the UNICOR program, State prison industries, public works 
programs, restitution centers, correctional facility operations and 
maintenance, and private entities.
    ``(2) An incarcerated worker shall be considered employed by--
            ``(A) the public agency operating the correctional facility 
        in which the individual is incarcerated or detained; or
            ``(B) in the case of a correctional facility operated by a 
        private entity through a contract with a public agency, such 
        private entity.
    ``(aa) `Correctional facility' has the meaning given such term in 
section 901 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 
(34 U.S.C. 10251).
    ``(bb)(1) `Court-imposed fee' means any fee imposed by a court as a 
result of a criminal conviction, including any surcharge imposed for a 
felony or misdemeanor conviction, a criminal justice administrative 
fee, a court-appointed attorney fee, a court clerk fee, a filing clerk 
fee, a DNA database fee, a jury fee, a crime lab analysis fee, a late 
fee, an installment fee, or any other court cost.
    ``(2) The term `court-imposed fee' does not include any amount 
required by a court to be paid for child support, to a crime victim 
compensation fund, for a civil judgment, or for a criminal fine.''.
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