How much do incarcerated people earn in each state?

Prison wages come up again and again in the context of prison conditions and policies. So, we found the most up-to-date information for each state.

by Wendy Sawyer, April 10, 2017

How much do incarcerated people earn? For this update, we combed through the policies of state correctional agencies and any other available sources, and found information for every state. Despite the inaccessibility of data for some state prison jobs, this is the most comprehensive list of wages paid to incarcerated people available today:

Wages are per hour. Some states publish wage policies differently. For states that calculate wages on daily, weekly, monthly, and annual bases, I calculated the hourly rates based on work hours per day and work days per month, according to the written policies or what was reported in the 2001 Corrections Yearbook survey. For states where I could find no information on work hours, I assumed 22 work days per month and an average workday of 6.35 hours (for regular jobs) or 6.79 hours (for industry jobs) per day. I included all non-industry jobs paid by correctional agencies as “regular prison jobs” for the table, including rare and off-site jobs that pay more. In many states, most regular prison jobs pay well below the highest rates stated here. See the Appendix for policy details.
Regular jobs
(non-industry)
Jobs in state-owned businesses
(“Correctional Industries”)
Low High Low High
Alabama 0.00 0.00 0.25 0.75
Alaska 0.30 1.25 0.65 4.90
Arizona 0.15 0.50 0.20 0.80
Arkansas 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
California 0.08 0.37 0.30 0.95
Colorado 0.13 0.38 n/a n/a
Connecticut 0.13 1.00 0.30 1.50
Delaware n/a n/a 0.25 2.00
Florida 0.00 0.32 0.20 0.55
Georgia 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Hawaii 0.25 0.25 0.50 2.50
Idaho 0.10 0.90 n/a n/a
Illinois 0.09 0.89 0.30 2.25
Indiana 0.12 0.25 n/a n/a
Iowa 0.27 0.68 0.58 0.87
Kansas 0.09 0.16 0.25 3.00
Kentucky 0.13 0.33 n/a n/a
Louisiana 0.04 1.00 n/a 0.40
Maine n/a n/a 0.58 3.50
Maryland 0.15 0.46 0.20 0.82
Massachusetts 0.14 1.00 n/a n/a
Michigan 0.14 0.56 n/a n/a
Minnesota 0.25 2.00 0.50 2.00
Mississippi 0.00 n/a 0.20 1.30
Missouri 0.05 n/a 0.30 1.25
Montana 0.16 1.25 n/a n/a
Nebraska 0.16 1.08 0.38 1.08
Nevada n/a n/a 0.25 5.15
New Hampshire 0.25 1.50 0.50 1.50
New Jersey 0.26 2.00 0.38 2.00
New Mexico 0.10 1.00 0.30 1.10
New York 0.10 0.33 Average 0.62
North Carolina 0.05 0.38 0.05 0.38
North Dakota 0.19 0.88 0.45 1.69
Ohio 0.10 0.17 0.21 1.23
Oklahoma 0.05 0.54 0.00 0.43
Oregon 0.05 0.47 0.05 0.47
Pennsylvania 0.19 1.00 0.19 0.42
Rhode Island 0.29 0.86 n/a n/a
South Carolina 0.00 0.00 0.35 1.80
South Dakota 0.25 0.38 0.25 0.25
Tennessee 0.17 0.75 n/a n/a
Texas 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Utah 0.40 n/a 0.60 1.75
Vermont 0.25 0.40 0.25 1.25
Virginia 0.27 0.45 0.55 0.80
Washington n/a 0.36 0.70 2.70
West Virginia 0.04 0.58 n/a n/a
Wisconsin 0.09 0.42 0.79 1.41
Wyoming 0.35 1.00 0.50 1.20
Federal Prisons 0.12 0.40 0.23 1.15
Average 0.14 0.63 0.33 1.41

What kinds of work do incarcerated people do?

Not everyone works in prison. Facilities face budget limitations and sometimes there is just not enough work to go around. But generally, correctional facilities assign incarcerated people to work as close to a regular day as possible. These work assignments fall into four broad categories, the first of which is by far the most common:

Not everyone works in prison. Facilities face budget limitations and sometimes there is just not enough work to go around. But generally, correctional facilities assign incarcerated people to work as close to a regular day as possible. These work assignments fall into four broad categories, the first of which is by far the most common:

  1. Regular prison jobs. These are directed by the Department of Corrections and support the prison facility. This category includes custodial, maintenance, laundry, grounds keeping, food service, and many other types of work. Sometimes called “facility,” “prison,” or “institutional support” jobs, these are the most common prison jobs.
  2. Jobs in state-owned businesses. Often called “Correctional Industries,” these businesses produce goods and provide services that are sold to government agencies. Correctional agencies and the businesses coordinate to operate these “shops,” and the revenues they generate help fund these positions. Agency-operated industries employ about 6% of people incarcerated in prisons.
  3. Jobs outside the facility. Work release programs, work camps, and community work centers provide services for public or nonprofit agencies. These programs are directed by the Department of Corrections, but sometimes community employers pay incarcerated workers’ wages. These jobs are typically reserved for people considered lower security risks, and/or those preparing to be released.
  4. Jobs in private businesses. A small number of incarcerated people work for businesses that contract with correctional agencies through the PIE program. This program allows private companies to operate within correctional facilities and provide job training and supervision. Companies must pay local “prevailing wages” for these jobs, but workers may only end up with a small portion of these wages; up to 80% of these earnings can be deducted for various fees.

One major surprise: prisons appear to be paying incarcerated people less today than they were in 2001. The average of the minimum daily wages paid to incarcerated workers for non-industry prison jobs is now 86 cents, down from 93 cents reported in 2001. The average maximum daily wage for the same prison jobs has declined more significantly, from $4.73 in 2001 to $3.45 today. What changed? At least seven states appear to have lowered their maximum wages, and South Carolina no longer pays wages for most regular prison jobs – assignments that paid up to $4.80 per day in 2001. With a few rare exceptions, regular prison jobs are still unpaid in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas.

Incarcerated people assigned to work for state-owned businesses earn between 33 cents and $1.41 per hour on average – roughly twice as much as people assigned to regular prison jobs. Only about 6 percent of people incarcerated in state prisons earn these “higher” wages, however. An even tinier portion of incarcerated workers are eligible for “prevailing local wages” working for private businesses that contract with states through the PIE program. The vast majority spend their days working in custodial, maintenance, grounds keeping, or food service jobs for the institutions that confine them.

The wages listed above do not include any deductions, which in reality often leave incarcerated workers with less than half of their gross pay. In Massachusetts, for example, at least half of each paycheck goes into a savings account to pay for expenses after release. “Any and all funds” can be used to pay court-assessed fines, court costs, victim witness assessments, etc. New Mexico deducts 15-50% of each paycheck for a Crime Victims Reparations Fund, discharge money, and family support. These policies arguably serve legitimate purposes, but such deductions also mean that $1 per day earned to make day-to-day life behind bars more bearable is really 50 cents (or even less).

The question of wages paid for prison labor is an important one, especially when we consider the relative costs of fees charged and things sold to incarcerated people. The value of a dollar is different when you earn pennies per hour. (And in six states, the wage is almost always zero pennies per hour.) In Colorado, for example, it costs an incarcerated woman two weeks’ wages to buy a box of tampons; maybe more if there’s a shortage. Saving up for a $10 phone card would take almost two weeks for an incarcerated person working in a Pennsylvania prison.

Making it hard for incarcerated people to earn real money hurts their chances of success when they are released, too. With little to no savings, how can they possibly afford the immediate costs of food, housing, healthcare, transportation, child support, and supervison fees? People with felony convictions are often ineligible for government benefit programs like welfare and food stamps, and face barriers to finding stable housing and employment. And they may leave prison with just a bus ticket and $50 of “gate money,” if they have no other savings. So the meager earnings from prison work assignments can be essential to a person’s success – and even survival – when they return to their community.

Most prison jobs teach incarcerated people very few skills relevant to the labor market they will rejoin upon release, so the wages they earn may be the only payoff they see. These perpetually low wages are especially frustrating when we consider the increasing expenses incarcerated people face, both inside and after release. Of course, raising wages is a tough sell politically, but policymakers and the public must acknowledge that almost everyone in prison will eventually be released. Their success and independence depends largely on financial stability, which is undermined by low wages, nickel-and-diming through “user fees,” mandatory deductions, and work that does little to prepare them for work outside of prisons. Forward-thinking policymakers must consider the importance of earnings and relevant job training for people they hope will be independent one day.

For details about each state’s wage policies, see the Appendix.

Updated April 28, 2017 with information from a new source on Oklahoma’s regular prison jobs (non-industry). Originally, I included information based on a DOC website statement that these jobs pay up to $20 per month. According to DOC policy, however, most pay between $7.23 and $14.45 per month, and the highest possible wage for “special project pay” is 54 cents per hour. The averages have been updated to reflect these changes as well.

 

Wendy Sawyer is the Prison Policy Initiative Research Director. (Other articles | Full bio | Contact)

5 responses:

  1. wolf sittler says:

    Low pay, or no pay, for prisoners does little to teach personal responsibility or any skills in money handling. While most “systems” have idealistic goals, the reality often lags far behind. Last October, five Texas prisoners released the “Responsible Prison Project”…….a thoughtful and comprehensive look at some Texas prison conditions along with recommendations for improvement. They note how the fact that since prison conditions rarely mirror life on the outside, that preparation for release leaves much to be desired. If you get paid nothing, it’s all to easy to engage in black market activity to satisfy desires.
    https://www.themarshallproject.org/documents/3149075-Responsible-Prison-Project#.knXPsLzQp

  2. WILLIAM ECKMAN says:

    THEY are getting a place to stay and food all of which i have to work to pay for. people in prison are there for crimes and should work for the roof over their heads and the food they get. nothing else should be paid to them

  3. We recently alleged a violation of the FLSA for work my client did as a teaching assistant/tutor at a prison in Indiana. He was being paid $0.25 per hour. Besides being bad for the prisoner, we thought this was also taking a typical over-minimum wage paying job of a non-incarcerated person.

    You can read about the case, which was dismissed unfortunately on summary judgment, here: https://casetext.com/case/lashbrook-v-grace-coll-theological-seminary

  4. Rick Stewart says:

    William Eckman – what is the purpose of incarceration in the first place?

    Is it punishment (as in vengence – you did something bad to us so we are going to do something bad to you), containment (when you are locked up you won’t be able to kill anyone else), deterrence (stop anyone else from doing what you did, and stop you from doing it again when you are released), or rehabilitation (you are a person who interracted poorly with society, we need to get you back on board the train with everyone else as quickly as possible, but we feel a little re-training is necessary first)?

    To me vengence is just ignorant, as it gets me nothing and costs me a lot, both in cash and in the ability to sleep at night.

    Containment is also expensive, but serves a useful purpose.

    Deterence makes perfect sense, so long as it works. This is an empirical question and we should ignore emotional appeals. We will never be 100% successful but we should be measuring costs and benefits rigorously, and act accordingly.

    Rehabilitation makes the most sense of all to me. Not ‘at any cost,’ but taking into account all that is to be gained from taking people who have harmed society and turning them into productive, law abiding, and tax-paying citizens.

    Given these possibilities, you may be correct – there is no need to pay a vicious unrepentent killer her 27 cents an hour (in Iowa, where I live).

    To refuse to pay more than that to a Drug War victim seems crazy. It would be free to society not to imprison them in the first place, but if politicians and misinformed voters can’t live with that can’t we at least minimize the expense of doing so while maximizing the chances they will pay a lot of taxes after they get out?

  5. PeenieSlayer27 says:

    We recently alleged a violation of the FLSA for work my client did as a teaching assistant/tutor at a prison in Indiana. He was being paid $0.25 per hour. Besides being bad for the prisoner, we thought this was also taking a typical over-minimum wage paying job of a non-incarcerated person.

    You can read about the case, which was dismissed unfortunately on summary judgment, here: https://casetext.com/case/lashbrook-v-grace-coll-theological-seminary



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