[Nfbnet-members-list] SUB MINIMUM WAGE

[David Andrews]

> From Anil Lewis:



>
>We can set an expectation of full participation, 
>or we can continue to feed the fallacy of incapacity.
>
>It is the ignorance of the capacity of people 
>with disabilities to be productive employees 
>that perpetuates the existence of Section 14(c) 
>of the Fair Labor Standards Act, a law that 
>denies the guarantee of a federal minimum wage 
>to workers with disabilities.  Moreover, it is 
>frustrating to find that a few individuals with 
>disabilities are reluctant to support our 
>efforts to repeal this unfair, discriminatory, 
>immoral provision.  Some have become so 
>institutionalized that they don’t recognize 
>their own capacity.  It was not too long ago 
>that most of us were subjected to society’s low 
>expectations, with limited opportunities to 
>secure competitive employment in a career that 
>meets our unique skills, interests, and 
>abilities.  Others have become such elitists 
>that they now exhibit the same ignorance that 
>denied them the opportunity to be fully 
>participating citizens.  It is a sad irony that 
>these individuals, who were formerly denied 
>training and employment opportunities because 
>others felt they had no capacity, now 
>superimpose the same lack of capacity on others, 
>denying them the necessary training and support 
>to obtain competitive employment.
>
>People with disabilities have the right and 
>ability to work in the same jobs earning the 
>same wages as nondisabled workers.  There are 
>many examples of individuals with significant 
>disabilities who, when provided with the proper 
>training and support, have acquired a 
>competitive job skill to earn at least minimum 
>wage.  We should support this outcome for all 
>workers with disabilities.  Very few, if any, 
>disabled or nondisabled individuals acquire a 
>competitive job skill through performing menial 
>tasks in sheltered, segregated, subminimum-wage 
>work environments.  We must set higher 
>expectations and provide real training and 
>support for all people to be fully participating members of society.
>
>Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act 
>(FLSA) is not the compassionate offering of an 
>opportunity for workers with disabilities to 
>experience the tangible and intangible benefits 
>of work.  Section 14(c) is a poor public policy 
>that actually harms people with disabilities, 
>prohibiting most from obtaining competitive, 
>integrated employment by denying educational and training opportunities.
>
>    * Approximately 33 percent of students in 
> Kindergarten through grade 12 have sheltered 
> subminimum-wage workshops as their vocational 
> goal.  We have given up on them before they 
> have been provided a proper education, and they 
> will never reach their full potential­a generation lost.
>
>    * Approximately 95 percent of people 
> employed in a subminimum-wage work environment 
> will never transition out of that 
> environment.  They will never receive the 
> necessary training and support to be productive 
> employees.  They will remain beneficiaries of 
> public programs, never to become fully participating citizens.
>
>    * Approximately 50 percent of workers with 
> disabilities who are employed under a special 
> wage certificate earn less than half the 
> federal minimum wage.  They are paid, 
> supposedly based on their productivity, to work 
> in menial jobs determined by their employer, 
> not jobs that meet their strengths, interests, unique talents, or abilities.
>
>    * Approximately 25 percent of workers with 
> disabilities employed under a special wage 
> certificate earn less than $1 per hour.  We 
> have documentation of a worker with a 
> disability being paid 3 cents per hour.  This 
> is an assertion, day after day, that they are not as good as everyone else.
>
>    * Research shows that many of the skills 
> acquired in a sheltered, subminimum-wage work 
> environment must be unlearned in order for a 
> worker with a disability to obtain competitive 
> integrated employment.  Subminimum wage skills 
> only perpetuate subminimum wage 
> employment.  Real training must be provided in order to obtain real work.
>
>We applaud entities that help jobseekers with 
>disabilities to develop new skills, gain work 
>experience, and find jobs through employment 
>planning, skills training, job search and 
>development, placement, and ongoing employment 
>support.  However, for far too long we have 
>accepted the subminimum wage employer's 
>assertions of lack of capacity without asking the necessary questions.
>
>    * How many people does your organization 
> transition into competitive integrated 
> employment?  Can you provide me with the data?
>
>    * Why are there other organizations putting 
> people with significant disabilities to work at 
> the minimum wage that sheltered workshops have refused?
>
>    * Is a person with a disability really 
> choosing to work in a subminimum-wage work 
> environment when they have not received the 
> proper training and support to consider 
> competitive employment, or when they have only 
> been presented with a choice between 
> subminimum-wage employment and no employment at all?
>
>    * If you don’t believe that workers with 
> disabilities can be productive, why are you in 
> the business of providing employment for workers with disabilities?
>
>    * Who makes the decision for your 
> organization that a person cannot be 
> productive?  How do they make the 
> decision?  What training have they received in 
> the productive placement of a worker with a disability?
>
>    * Why have some workshops been able to 
> successfully transition their business model to 
> one that pays federal minimum wages or more to 
> their employees with disabilities, without loss 
> of jobs or revenue, and your organization cannot?
>
>    * If your organization does not pay less 
> than the minimum wage to workers with 
> disabilities, why should others be allowed to do so?
>
>We should emphasize competitive, integrated 
>employment as the only outcome that can be 
>considered real employment.  Anything else is 
>just glorified daycare that sends false messages 
>of incapacity to individuals who could become 
>competitively employed.  H.R. 3086 removes the 
>ability for employers to legally pay subminimum 
>wages to workers with disabilities, setting 
>higher expectations for the employers, as well as, the employees.
>
>Some will still state that there are those 
>individuals who are so severely disabled that 
>they cannot be competitively employed.  New 
>strategies evolve every day that prove this 
>statement to be false.  However, if there are 
>truly individuals too severely disabled to 
>perform competitive work, it is illogical and 
>demoralizing to make a decision that employment 
>at subminimum wages (pennies per hour) is the 
>best outcome for these individuals.  There is a 
>better reality that we can provide for these 
>individuals other than having them toil away, 
>day after day, for pennies an hour.
>
>
>
>
>Mr. Anil Lewis, M.P.A.
>“Eliminating Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities”
><http://www.nfb.org/fairwages>http://www.nfb.org/fairwages
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