Federal Minimum Wage Rules Don’t Apply to Detainees: Fourth Cir.

Immigrant detainees aren’t protected by federal minimum wage laws because those protections don’t extend to “custodial settings,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled.

The unanimous decision, issued March 5 by a three-judge panel, affirmed a lower court ruling that former asylum-seekers held in detention at a facility run by CoreCivic Inc. weren’t “employees” as contemplated by the Fair Labor Standards Act or New Mexico Minimum Wage Act and were therefore not entitled to federal- or state-mandated minimum wages.

The plaintiffs first sued in 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland after they ...