The 10 Cent Minimum Wage
An analysis of prison labor's effects on the American worker
Major corporations use prison labor to subsidize wage labor; this directly impact the US labor market because labor. The prison industrial complex feeds us propaganda positioning prisoners as less than human because they were charged with a crime. These people guilty of a crime or not should not be subjected to unfair work practices. All workers should receive a livable wage and safe working conditions. This loophole allowing slave labor is a real problem for all American workers; let me explain.
After the civil war white southern capitalists needed help. Without slaves their economy was on the verge of collapse. The government bailed them out by making the 13th amendment almost abolished slavery. Slavery was illegal UNLESS it was punishment for a crime. The word punishment made slavery palatable to the average citizen, but the wording of the amendment gave capitalists a loophole.
The word punishment made slavery palatable to the average citizen.
A capitalist hates waged labor; it cuts into their profits. No way they were going to pass up on free labor, and they did not. through prison labor many of our freed ancestors were thrown back into slavery for looking at a white man wrong or being late for work.
The rise of both private prisons and incarceration rates in the 70’s turned prison labor into a thriving business. It’s now impossible to walk into a grocery store and not see food that involved prison labor on the shelves. In fact it is impossible to walk into a Victoria Secret without seeing a product with prison labor attached to it (where do you think the cotton comes from?). Today prison labor hourly wage ranges from 10 cents to a $1.40 an hour.
Through prison labor many of our freed ancestors were thrown back into slavery.
After over 100 years of exploiting Black labor the capitalists have evolved to find a new way to grow the slave labor in prisons; immigrants.
Detention centers allow prison labor too. Say a farmhand in America makes 18 dollars an hour. This makes using slave labor from detention centers for immigrants $37,000 year cheaper per worker. ICE is redistributing money by exploiting prison labor and putting the profits back into capitalists’ pockets.
This impacts all workers in America. Your wages are getting depressed because the lowest possible price of labor is 10 cents an hour (the cheapest wage for prison labor). If the minimum wage for all work was 30 dollars an hour then the pay for skilled jobs would have to increase or the opportunity cost of a skilled worker switching to unskilled labor would vanish. Meaning you could take a job making the same or slightly less money and not have to go through the barriers of skilled work (ie: higher education, high level training, etc). Opportunity cost means the value of the next best alternative.
If prison labor was reduced to only maintaining the facility and not producing capital for capitalists; then we would no longer be in competition with prison labor. Prisoners do need the option to work. They have families, medical needs, and lawyer fees. The economic impact on homes when a parent is incarcerated its catastrophic. A parent being able to provide a livable wage while serving time would keep and/or raise families out of poverty. Currently money that could be going to families from their loved ones while they work behind bars is going back into capitalists’ pockets.
The economic impact on homes when a parent is incarcerated its catastrophic.
Prison work should be limited to maintaining the prison. It can be the current roles kitchen duties, building maintenance, etc. However, it should be expanded to other areas of the prison where they are severely understaffed. Mental health is an area that needs staffing within our prison system the worst. Training and educating prisoners who want to help other inmates seek needed mental health services would help fill this gap. The other area where the same process could be applied is public defenders. If Kim Kardashian can get a law we can train and educate or inmates. In both situation what better service to inmates (and the not guilty needing representation) in need than someone who can relate with them on a level no one else can.
Currently prison labor does not qualify for worker rights. Prisoners when doing labor are workers. They deserve a right to unionize and OSHA safety standards. This hurts workers outside of the prison much like the 10 cents an hour pay. If capitalists can exploit prison labor by suppressing workers rights and cutting corners on safety standard they will. We can’t allow our most vulnerable workers to be exploited or we will face similar issues. Safety standards across the board from airlines to factory farming have been falling. Wages have been suppressed for decades too. We are all connected; if the most oppressed workers receive proper worker rights then worker rights for everywhere will improve.
We can’t allow our most vulnerable workers to be exploited.
It is important for you to realize that prison labor affects every single worker in America. Prisoners are human beings and even if they commit a crime they deserve a fair and safe workplace. We are all workers for greedy capitalists. Ratifying the 13th amendment to once and for all ban slavery completely can finally stop government enforced exploitation. If we want better work conditions for all Americans it starts by freeing the most oppressed workforce; prison labor. Let’s take a giant step towards prison abolition and remove the capitalist from the prison industrial complex once and for all.
Stay woke,
Loc
Sources:
Associated Press. “‘Prison to Plate’: How Inmate Labor Feeds America.” AP News, 28 Apr. 2025, apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-c6f0eb4747963283316e494eadf08c4e.
Racial Wealth Divide Initiative. Rooted in Racism: The Prison Labor Economy. Economic Policy Institute, 17 Nov. 2022, www.epi.org/publication/rooted-racism-prison-labor/.
Choi, Shiyun. “Ending Forced Labor in ICE Detention Centers: A New Approach.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, vol. 34, no. 3, Spring 2020, www.law.georgetown.edu/immigration-law-journal/in-print/volume-34-number-3-spring-2020/ending-forced-labor-in-ice-detention-centers-a-new-approach/.
Wright, Jared. “Report: Kentucky Jails Contracting with ICE See 659% Increase in Detainees This Year.” LPM News, 7 Oct. 2025, www.lpm.org/news/2025-10-07/report-kentucky-jails-contracting-with-ice-have-659-increase-in-detainees-this-year.
Davis, Angela Y. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Haymarket Books, 2016.
I like how you connected capitalism and the working class that draws parallels to wage theft of prison labor. There's this "theory" that if people who are incarcerated and paid fare wages, it will "discourage rehabilitation". But we all know the prison industrial complex system isn't designed to "rehabilitate" anyone. It's interesting how people in prison aren't considered "Working class" and are often overlooked as people participating in the global economy, albeit incarcerated.