Kim Kardashian Wants Inmate Firefighter Raises. A California Lawmaker Agrees.

SACRAMENTO, California — As wildfires continue to scorch the Los Angeles area, a California state lawmaker is leading a push to give incarcerated firefighters pay raises — including those who are battling blazes for as little as $30 per day.

The bill, which will be introduced as soon as Wednesday, would bring pay for prisoner firefighters who are “actively fighting a fire” to an hourly rate equal to that of the lowest professional state firefighter wage, adding a significant cost to the state budget.

The cause has gained celebrity attention, with reality star Kim Kardashian calling for higher wages.

Incarcerated fire crew members earn $5.80 to $10.24 per day, with an extra $1 per hour for those assigned to an active emergency, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“Incarcerated firefighters are on the front lines saving lives,” Los Angeles Democrat Isaac Bryan, the bill’s author, exclusively told POLITICO. “They are heroes just like everybody else on the front lines, and they deserve to be paid like it.”

Kardashian, a criminal justice reform advocate, last weekend called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to increase their wages to a rate that “honors a human being risking their life to save our lives and homes,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Marshall Project reported there were more than 900 incarcerated firefighters responding to the Southern California wildfires as of Friday. The fires, which started last week and quickly exploded in size, have killed at least 25 people and destroyed thousands of buildings.

Prisoners who volunteer to work as firefighters earn two extra days off their sentences for every day they serve on a fire crew.