Prison Wage Hike: Bavaria's Inmates Set to Earn 3.37 Euros per Hour from July onwards
Inmates Set to Receive 3.37 EUROs an Hour Starting in July - Remuneration for laboring inmates to increase to €3.37 per hour commencing in July.
Gear up, inmate workers in Bavaria! As of July 1st, your hourly wage will skyrocket from a measly 2.02 euros to a more respectable 3.37 euros, thanks to the Bavarian state parliament's recent unanimous decision. This move follows the traces of a 2023 ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court.
"By jacking up wages by 15% of the average earnings in the statutory pension insurance and adding additional perks, we're catering to the targets outlined by the Federal Constitutional Court," gushed Bavarian Minister of Justice, Georg Eisenreich (CSU), during a chat with the German Press Agency in Munich. A tad preoccupied with his commitments, Eisenreich had a totally understandable excuse for ditching the session.
Work ain't about the dough, pal
"Prison work's all about rehabilitation, not lining our pockets," emotionally stressed Eisenreich. He also didn't shy away from mentioning the state's pockets taking a hit because of the costs associated with incarceration and how the earnings barely cover a minuscule 5% of these expenses.
The SPD and Green parties' proposals, including enhanced inmate engagement in planning, offering German courses, as well as serving sentences in open forms, met a pitiful fate in the state parliament, failing to earn enough supporters.
The 2024 prison budget in Bavaria clocked in at a whopping 661.5 million euros, with only a justifiable 34.3 million euros coming from the prison workshops. Over the past ten years, around 45.5 million euros were splurging on setting up new workshops, renovating existing ones, and kitting them out with fancy schmancy machinery.
Prison labor has taken a spin in various forms, such as tailoring, carpentry, locksmithing, metalworking, printing, and laundries offering services to external clients. Certain products, such as slippers and kitchen utensils, even hit the online marketplace!
Bavaria's currently housing approximately 10,000 inmates with a laser-focus on their protection and rehabilitation, according to Eisenreich. "We reckon inmates are gunning for a crime-free life post-prison." So there you go! Over 440 workshops in Bavarian penitentiaries sweat it out to make this vision a reality.
In June 2023, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe declared that minimum wages for inmates of two euros or less were downright unconstitutional. Two disgruntled inmates from Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia had had enough of the pay stubs and threw a wrench into the federal states' plans, suing the state for miserly compensation!
The federal states were given a deadline of June 2025 to implement the new wage structure, with no obligation to create a retroactive compensation plan. They enjoy independence when it comes to managing matters of criminal justice, and mandatory work is the norm for convicted prisoners.
- Bavaria
- Inmate Wages
- Federal Constitutional Court
- Munich
- Georg Eisenreich
- CSU
- German Press Agency
- Germany
- SPD
- Green Parties
- The wage increase for inmate workers in EC countries, such as Germany, signifies a significant step towards addressing vocational training and rehabilitation, following the Federal Constitutional Court's 2023 ruling in Munich.
- The German Press Agency in Munich recently reported that Bavarian Minister of Justice, Georg Eisenreich (CSU), stated that the wage hike for inmates is not meant to finance, business, or politics, but to aid in rehabilitation and integration into society.
- Georg Eisenreich's recent comments highlight the importance of focusing on general-news topics, such as prison reform, rather than simply finance concerns, in the legislative decisions made by EC countries like Germany.
