LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general, led by California, in an amicus brief in defense of state minimum wage protections for employees of federal contractors in Washington v. GEO Group. The case centers around a lawsuit filed in 2017 by the State of Washington challenging GEO Group, Inc.’s (GEO) failure to pay state minimum wages to individuals who worked for GEO during their confinement to GEO’s private, for-profit detention facility while awaiting the outcome of civil immigration proceedings. In the amicus brief, the coalition highlights the critical importance of state minimum wage protections, pushes back on GEO’s efforts to evade broadly applicable wage and hour laws, and urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to affirm the lower court’s judgment.

“As attorney general, protecting the residents of our state from exploitation is a top priority,” Nessel said. “The Michigan minimum wage is currently $9.87 an hour and through their unfair labor practices, GEO Group, a private business, attempted to clothe itself in federal immunity and exploit immigrant workers to circumvent minimum wage laws. I stand with my colleagues in asserting that state minimum wage laws are applicable to any entity that conducts business in a state regardless of the entity’s status as a federal contractor.”

In 2017, the State of Washington and individual plaintiffs filed lawsuits against GEO challenging its failure to pay the...

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