Discussion - PIECP Violations - Pg. 2

Failure to Pay Prevailing Wages to Inmate Workers

The second mandatory requirement of the PIECP Guidelines is that inmate workers be paid at the same wage rate/scale as private sector workers in the non-prison industry environment. The actual requirement reads, in whole:

"2. Legislative authority to pay wages at a rate not less than that paid for similar work in the same locality’s private sector."

The wording of the guideline is pretty straight forward but this singular issue has resulted in the most "confusion" to prison industry participants. Instead of complying with the requirement by determining the prevailing wage for all industry job descriptions and paying the inmates accordingly, they continue to insist on paying lower wages. Their reasoning is that they should not have to pay prevailing wages to inmates who are being trained on equipment or techniques...or that particular jobs performed by inmates aren't really important enough to pay PIE wages for. They also argue that their prison industries are located away from metropolitan areas and the local job markets are depressed and therefore they should be able to pay less per hour for inmate work. They say this procedure of paying less than prevailing wages helps to offset the shipping expenses that occur due to the rural location of their industries.

The BJA shot down most of the foregoing arguments, stating that if the prison industry did not want to pay inmates while they were being trained, then they should operate a separate training facility, away from the one manufacturing PIE products. The BJA reiterated that the prevailing wage requirement must be met prior to operations and continue as long as the prison industry operates.

Sadly, this is just not the case. In Florida, for instance, Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE) operates the state-wide prison industries. PRIDE has dozens of industry operations throughout Florida. They list ten (10) that are certified as PIECP participating industries (they have 11, the missing one is their Union Foods Industry that is listed with the BJA but not reflected on their web site located at: http://www.pride-enterprises.org/pie_program.aspx).

PRIDE pays the bulk of their PIE workers the Florida Minimum Wage of $6.40 per hour. Some inmates with long tenure and experience earn as much as $8-9.00 per hour. Some would argue that it makes little differrence if a prison industry pays an inmate comparable wages or not. However we can quickly point out that it makes a huge difference - to the taxpayers, the DOCs and federal deductions requiring matching funds from the employer. Below is a demonstration of the impact upon all concerned by not paying proper wages to the inmate workers.

For example, PRIDE operates a Dental Laboratory Industry at their UCI complex in Raiford, Florida. PRIDE currently lists 49 inmate workers assigned to this Dental Lab. Several of the inmate technicians working at the facility have been with that industry for more than 6-8 years. One in particular has been with them the longest - over 13 years. Let us compare the prison PIE wages for these experienced inmate technicians against the private sector wages earned by similar employees in Jacksonville, Florida, a distance of approximately 40 miles from the prison industry. In Jacksonville a Dental Laboratory Technician (occupational code 51-9081 source: Florida Occupational Employment and Wages estimate for 2009: http://www.labormarketinfo.com/library/oes/estimates2009/q1-2009jacksonville.xls) with experience receives $20.72 per hour. PRIDE pays experienced technicians $8.79 per hour. The experienced inmate worker is being paid $11.93 per hour less than the private sector experienced employee. Multiply the underpaid wages by 6 hours per day, 20 days per month (5 day work weeks) and the experienced worker receives $71.58 less per day or $1,436.00 per month.  Entry level Dental Lab Technicians receive $12.47 per hour in Jacksonville while the new hires at PRIDE's facility are paid the state minimum of $6.40 per hour - a difference of $6.07 per hour. The loss to the inmate's wages are substantial.

If all 49 inmate workers were considered entry level workers and paid the state minimum wage of $6.40 per hour, per 6 hour work day, per 5 day work week, PRIDE is underpaying their workers at the rate of $35,691.60 every month. The math calculation works out to a conservative annual wage savings of $428,299.20 for PRIDE. This is based upon only one of their eleven (11) PIE industries. With the FDOC entitled to 40% of those lost wages, the department is losing $171,319.68 per year in room and board deductions from that one industry. When we look at the total number of claimed inmates working in PRIDE PIE programs (411) - where inmate workers are all being paid at the state minimum wage rate of $6.40 per hour regardless of their job description(s) - the accumulated losses to the FDOC in wage deductions alone exceed $3.5 million per year.

The underpaid wages not paid to the DOCs, FICA, medicare and social security have a ripple effect. The DOC's budget for the next fiscal year is short and tax dollars have to be appropriated to make up the shortage. Social Security payments on behalf of the inmate workers are seriously reduced, as are the matching funds paid into the SS accounts by PRIDE. FICA taxes are less as is medicare. Victim Restitution funds are also shorted, as they receive a set percentage of the inmate's gross wages...and all that "lost" money that has to be made up with tax dollars can be found in the PIE Prison Industry account, listed as yearly profits.