Incarcerated individual hand crew members: wages.

The annual wage rate requirement was changed from 'shall be updated annually' to 'shall be reviewed annually' in all three places it appears (Penal Code 2714, Penal Code 4019.2(c)(1), and Welfare and Institutions Code 1760.46(a)). This weakens the obligation: 'updated' implies the rate must actually change each year, while 'reviewed' only requires consideration without a mandate to adjust.

New provisions require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to maintain regulations for an administrative adjudication and remedy process for wage disputes involving state-assigned incarcerated hand crew members (Penal Code 4019.2(c)(2)) and youth at Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp (Welfare and Institutions Code 1760.46(b)).

New provision requires counties to maintain regulations for an administrative adjudication and remedy process for wage disputes involving county-assigned incarcerated hand crew members (Penal Code 4019.2(c)(3)).

Section 1760.46 was restructured from a single paragraph into subdivisions (a) and (b), and the term 'hand crew member' was added to describe wards or youth placed at Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp, making their status as workers more explicit.

Senator Reyes was added as a principal coauthor alongside Assembly Member Flora, indicating bipartisan sponsorship at the Senate level.

The bill was designated as Chapter 681 and the Governor's approval date of October 13, 2025 was inserted.

Assembly and Senate passage headers, clerk signatures, and the blank gubernatorial receipt line were removed in favor of the standard chaptered law format.

The header 'STATE OF CALIFORNIA AUTHENTICATED ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIAL' was added to identify the document as an official published statute.

The phrase 'updated reviewed annually' was corrected to 'reviewed annually' in Section 2714 (Penal Code), Section 4019.2(c)(1) (Penal Code), and Section 1760.46(a) (Welfare and Institutions Code). This removes a redundant or erroneous word that appeared to be a drafting artifact from an earlier amendment.

Header information was updated to reflect final passage: author/coauthor lists were removed, replaced with 'Passed the Assembly September 11, 2025' and 'Passed the Senate September 10, 2025,' and a Governor receipt/approval block was added.

Added Welfare and Institutions Code Section 1760.46 requiring that a ward or youth placed at Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp be paid $7.25 per hour while assigned to an active fire incident, with annual wage updates. This extends the bill's coverage from adult inmates to justice-involved youth.

Added Penal Code Section 2714 requiring that incarcerated individual hand crew members referenced in Section 2933.3 (state prison inmates) be paid $7.25 per hour while assigned to an active fire incident. This extends the wage requirement beyond county jail inmates to state prison inmates.

The bill's stated purpose expanded from amending only Section 4019.2 of the Penal Code to also adding Section 2714 to the Penal Code and Section 1760.46 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, broadening applicability across multiple codes.

The hourly wage is consistently set at $7.25 (down from a prior version's $19), with annual updates required. This rate now applies uniformly to both adult inmate hand crew members and youth at Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp.

The legislative digest now includes a description of existing law authorizing juvenile court placement of wards at Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp and the state-local partnership model for training justice-involved youth in wildland firefighting skills, providing context for the new youth wage provision.

New Section 4 declares the act an urgency statute under Article IV of the California Constitution, making it take effect immediately upon passage rather than on January 1. The stated necessity is to ensure resources are ready and available to combat California's wildfires.

The legislative counsel's digest vote requirement changed from 'majority' to 'majority 2/3,' reflecting the constitutional requirement that urgency statutes receive a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

Assembly Member Haney was reorganized from a separate coauthor line into the main coauthors list, and the act's short title was updated to include 'and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.'

The hourly wage for incarcerated individual hand crew members assigned to active fire incidents was reduced from $19 per hour (defined as the lowest nonincarcerated firefighter wage in California) to a flat $7.25 per hour, which equals the federal minimum wage.

The wage payment requirement no longer applies to 'inmate firefighters' as a separate category. Only 'incarcerated individual hand crew members' are now covered by the wage provision in subdivision (c).

The reference to 'the lowest nonincarcerated firefighter wage in the State of California' as the basis for the wage rate was removed, replacing it with a fixed dollar amount.

Wage requirements now extend to 'incarcerated individual hand crew members' in addition to inmate firefighters, broadening who is covered by the pay mandate.

Assembly Member Haney was added as a coauthor, indicating broader legislative support for the bill.

A specific starting wage of $19 per hour was added for time assigned to an active fire incident. The original version only referenced 'the lowest nonincarcerated firefighter wage' without a dollar figure.

Gender-neutral language change from 'his or her' to 'their' in subdivision (d), and duplicate subdivision letters were cleaned up with renumbering.