California is moving to pay incarcerated firefighters the federal minimum wage of $7.25 during active fires, a policy change that follows years of advocacy to improve pay and working conditions for incarcerated labor.
Best I can do is minimum wage for grueling, dangerous work.
This is worse than you think. These firefighters are locked up, but if they “volunteer” for high risk duties that pay them jack shit, they can get out a little earlier.
Do we have to explain the perverse incentives this system encourages? It’s so dirty.
I just had a convo with someone about how the most dangerous job at their factory, which involves repeatedly getting near a 1700 degree furnace, was always mandated to be the highest hourly rate, even if other jobs were skilled labor, and no one thought this was unfair in the slightest due to the dangers involved.
I’m not sure how to feel about this - there will always be dangerous jobs in any worksite and it’s better that the danger is more highly compensated than the alternative - that the job is forced upon those with the least alternatives and paid the same or less than safer work (like the situation in the OP with incarcerated firefighters).
I work in a grocery store meat department and was a meat cutter for 2 years at a previous job. It pays well at least partially because you’re working with your hands next to a spinning blade for hours a day and it’s pretty normal to see old timers missing a finger or two.
This is worse than you think. These firefighters are locked up, but if they “volunteer” for high risk duties that pay them jack shit, they can get out a little earlier.
Do we have to explain the perverse incentives this system encourages? It’s so dirty.
I just had a convo with someone about how the most dangerous job at their factory, which involves repeatedly getting near a 1700 degree furnace, was always mandated to be the highest hourly rate, even if other jobs were skilled labor, and no one thought this was unfair in the slightest due to the dangers involved.
I’m not sure how to feel about this - there will always be dangerous jobs in any worksite and it’s better that the danger is more highly compensated than the alternative - that the job is forced upon those with the least alternatives and paid the same or less than safer work (like the situation in the OP with incarcerated firefighters).
I work in a grocery store meat department and was a meat cutter for 2 years at a previous job. It pays well at least partially because you’re working with your hands next to a spinning blade for hours a day and it’s pretty normal to see old timers missing a finger or two.