Plus, incarcerated workers in Washington state could make $15.74 per hour.
Restaurant and food service workers are often mandated to pay for a basic online class in food safety from a company called ServSafe – which, as the New York Times reports, is actually a fundraising branch of the National Restaurant Association. The lobbying group has long fought against increasing the minimum wage and fought for maintaining the subminimum wage for tipped workers. “I’m sitting up here working hard, paying this money so that I can work this job, so I can provide for my family,” one line cook and labor organizer told the Times. “And I’m giving y’all money so y’all can go against me?”
A proposal in the Washington State legislature, introduced by formerly incarcerated lawmaker Rep. Tarra Simmons as the “Real Labor, Real Wages Act,” seeks to provide the state minimum wage of $15.74 an hour to people working a job inside prisons in Washington state.
“I think it’s really important, both for moral reasons and knowing that this practice is part of the slavery loophole, but also to set people up for success upon reentry, so they can save money for housing and transportation when they come home,” Simmons told KUOW News. “Also, while they’re currently incarcerated, they can still pay their child support and their victim restitution.”
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