Published on: Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Tacoma, Wash. ICE detention center (a federal contractor) pays its civil detainees $1 per day for a voluntary work program, far below the state's minimum wage. Jury awards $17 mil in back pay and court enjoined GEO from employing detainees without paying Washington’s minimum wage. Ninth Circuit: Sounds about right. The state's minimum wage does not violate intergovernmental immunity or the contractor's derivative sovereign immunity, and it is not preempted. Pay your workers. Dissent: State facilities don't have to follow the state's minimum wage requirements, so it violates all kinds of doctrines to hold federal facilities to a higher standard.
The case is Nwauzor v. GEO Group Inc, No. 21-36024 (9th Cir. Jan. 16, 2025).