[Nfb-greeley] Fw: [Chapter-presidents] Please Sign and Circulate the Petition to Support Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities

[melissa R green]

Please sign this.
Sincerely,
Melissa and Pj
Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, 
and you learn at once how big and precious it is.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: Lewis, Anil
To: Lewis, Anil
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 7:18 AM
Subject: [Chapter-presidents] Please Sign and Circulate the Petition to 
Support Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities


Petition to Support Fair Wages
for Workers with Disabilities



www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition



We, the undersigned, are Americans with disabilities who are adversely 
affected by subminimum wage payments to workers with disabilities; 
representatives of organizations made up of, and working on behalf of, 
Americans with disabilities; friends and family members of individuals who 
have disabilities; and other concerned citizens who believe in fairness and 
equality.  We all speak in support of the repeal of Section 14(c) of the 
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which authorizes Special Wage Certificates 
that permit employers to pay workers with disabilities subminimum wages, 
some as low as 3 cents per hour.



We reject the low expectations for, the false view of the true capacity of, 
and the misguided compassion used to justify this discrimination against 
workers with disabilities.  This provision has existed for over seventy 
years, and rather than creating real employment opportunities for workers 
with disabilities, it has relegated hundreds of thousands of people with 
disabilities to segregated, subminimum wage work environments, perpetuated 
the misconception that workers with disabilities do not have the capacity 
for productive employment, and masked the need for further development and 
implementation of innovative employment strategies for the competitive 
integrated employment of people with disabilities.



We all believe that the future prospects for workers with disabilities are 
limited only by the spirit, ambition, and imagination of Americans with 
disabilities, and by the willingness of society to expand and implement 
enlightened policies that will help them succeed.  We adamantly assert that 
as long as workers with disabilities are denied the same workforce 
protections as every other American citizen, and the solution to the 
employment dilemma of workers with disabilities is thought to be their 
continued segregation in subminimum-wage work environments, our society will 
never truly implement the innovative employment strategies that empower 
workers with disabilities to fully participate in the workforce.



For these reasons, we, the undersigned, urge the repeal of Section 14(c) of 
the Fair Labor Standards Act in order to abolish the unfair, discriminatory, 
immoral practice of paying workers with disabilities subminimum wages; to 
reverse over seventy years of mistaken institutionalized thinking about the 
employment capacity of people with disabilities; and to incentivize the 
development, implementation, and use of innovative strategies for their 
competitive, integrated employment.



To sign the petition, visit www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition



Mr. Anil Lewis, M.P.A.

Director of Advocacy and Policy



"Eliminating Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities"

http://www.nfb.org/fairwages


NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place

Baltimore, Maryland   21230


(410) 659-9314 ext. 2374 (Voice)

(410) 685-5653 (FAX)

Email: alewis at nfb.org

Web: www.nfb.org

twitter: @anillife





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