These License Plates Don't Stamp Themselves

David Weigel | July 11, 2006

Minimum wage-hike fever is in the air; but not, for now, at America's prisons

Douglas R. Loving contended his job as a drying machine operator qualified him for protection under the Fair Labor Standards Act - meaning he should get the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour - because the act didn't exempt prisoners.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. It upheld a lower court decision's to throw out Loving's lawsuit as frivolous, writing that prisoners are not employees and not entitled to minimum wages.

Reason has been suggesting alternatives to a minimum wage hike for years, although these ideas might not apply to workers in the correctional system.