KTLA Special Report: Is a Sex Offender Worth $42 an Hour?
VIDEO: Watch Chip Yost's report
 (KTLA-TV) |
Spry and English are suing Baron Services of Chino, a company that does final cleaning and janitorial work on construction sites.
Though there are questions about whether or not Spry and English should have even been on some of the work sites in the first place since some of them were on K-12 school campuses, there's no question that many of the projects were funded with public dollars.
The prevailing wage for some of the general laborers in California is set at about $42 an hour.
According to information provided by the California Department of Industrial Relations, depending on what Spry and English's exact duties were on a work site, it's possible they could successfully argue in court that they deserve $42 an hour in back pay.
That would be a big raise from the $9 an hour they apparently agreed to work for when they were hired.
State Assemblyman Curt Hagman, of Chino Hills, says this case illustrates why he thinks the prevailing wage laws need to be revised to better define the "prevailing wage" that people like Spry and English should be paid.
"It cries out that the system is broken," Hagman said. "Do we really need that level (of pay) for entry level positions?"
In a brief interview at his Pomona home, Spry said he "wasn't making anything" when he was being paid $9 an hour, and that $42 an hour is what he deserved.
Sex offender Steven English couldn’t be reached, since he's back in prison after parole agents with the Department of Corrections say he violated his parole in January in a vandalism case.
Richard Donahoo, the attorney for the two sex offenders and three other former employees who are suing Baron Services, refused KTLA's request for an interview.
Jeff Baron, the owner of Baron Services, told us he thinks the laws need to be revised too.
He says since some of his payments from general contractors are now frozen because of the lawsuit, he may lose his business.
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