[Capchapohio] The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2011

[Beth Debus]

The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act
of 2011
H.R. 3086

Disabled workers have been unfairly excluded from the federal minimum wage 
for 74 years, and today over 300,000 disabled workers 
are working for subminimum wages. 

Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) discriminates
against people with disabilities. This section allows the Secretary of
Labor to grant special wage certificates to employers, permitting them to pay
their workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage, often in sheltered
work environments. In some instances disabled workers are being paid pennies
per hour. 

This discrimination is rooted in low expectations based on misconceptions
about the capabilities of disabled people.The law falsely
implies that people with disabilities cannot be productive employees, and
subminimum wage employers prey on society’s misconception that disabled people
are incapable of being competitively employed. In reality, when provided the
proper rehabilitation training and tools, workers with disabilities can be
productive and financially independent. 

Subminimum wage supports an outdated business model that fosters the
underemployment of workers with disabilities. Section 14(c) was only to
be used “to the extent necessary to prevent curtailment of opportunities” for
employment of people with disabilities. Instead, subminimum-wage sheltered
workshops have eroded into day custody centers, limiting opportunities for
workers with disabilities ever to transition into integrated, competitive work.
These institutions instill a philosophy of incapacity, which becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy resulting in long-term underemployment. 

The sheltered work system is a cash cow for the subminimum wage employer. Many employers insist that paying the minimum wage to disabled employees would
result in lack of profitability and a reduction in their workforce, but most
benefit from philanthropic donations, preferred status when bidding on federal
contracts, and federal funding. Moreover, while their disabled workers receive
subminimum wages that are subsidized by Social Security and public assistance,
some workshop executives are earning salaries far above industry norms. The
economics overwhelmingly favor subminimum wage employers, encouraging the perpetuation
of subminimum wage employment and leaving workers with disabilities little to
no choice for real employment. 

The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2011: 

Discontinues the practice of issuing special wage certificates. The secretary
of labor will no longer issue special wage certificates to new applicants. 

Phases out all remaining special wage certificates over a 3-year period. Entities currently holding special wage certificates will begin compensating
their workers with disabilities at no less than the federal minimum wage, using
the following schedule: 
· private for-profit entities’ certificates will be revoked after 1 year; 
· public or governmental entities’ certificates will be revoked after 2 years;
and 
· non-profit entities’ certificates will be revoked after 3 years. 

Repeals Section14(c) of the FLSA. Three years after the law is enacted,
the practice of paying disabled workers subminimum wage will be officially
abolished, and workers with disabilities will no longer be excluded from the
workforce protection of a federal minimum wage. 

STOP THE DISCRIMINATION
PROMOTE EQUAL WORK FOR EQUAL PAY

Cosponsor the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act
H.R. 3086


For more information contact:
Anil Lewis, Director of
Strategic Communications
National Federation of the Blind
Phone: (410) 659-9314, Extension 2374 E-mail: alewis at nfb.org
 
To cosponsor the bill,
contact:
James Thomas in
Congressman Cliff Stearns’s office
Phone: (202) 225-5744 E-mail: james.thomas at mail.house.gov
-or-
Tim Powers in Congressman Tim Bishop’s office
Phone: (202) 225-3826 E-mail: tim.powers at mail.house.gov
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