<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><br>https://www.nfb.org/programs-services/advocacy/policy-statements/open-letter-regarding-american-rescue-plan-subminimum-2021-02-22</div><div class="region region-above-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><div id="block-nfb-pagetitle" class="block block-core block-page-title-block" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 class="page-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.1; font-size: 35px; font-weight: 500; color: inherit;"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br></span></h1><h1 class="page-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.1; font-size: 35px; font-weight: 500; color: inherit;"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Open Letter Regarding the American Rescue Plan and the Phase Out of Subminimum Wages (February 22, 2021) </span></h1></div></div><div class="region region-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><div id="block-nfb-mainpagecontent" class="block block-system block-system-main-block" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><article data-history-node-id="14611" role="article" about="/programs-services/advocacy/policy-statements/open-letter-regarding-american-rescue-plan-subminimum-2021-02-22" class="node node--type-page node--view-mode-full clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="node__content clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">February 22, 2021</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">The Honorable Nancy Pelosi<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Speaker of the House <br style="box-sizing: border-box;">United States House of Representatives<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">1236 Longworth House Office Building<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Washington, DC 20515</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">The Honorable Chuck Schumer <br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Majority Leader<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">United States Senate<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">322 Hart Senate Office Building<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Washington, DC 20510</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">The Honorable Kevin McCarthy<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Minority Leader<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">United States House of Representatives<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">2468 Rayburn House Office Building<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Washington, DC 20515</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">The Honorable Mitch McConnell<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Minority Leader<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">United States Senate<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">317 Russell Senate Office Building<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Washington, DC 20510 <br style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dear Madam Speaker, Minority Leader McCarthy, Majority Leader Schumer, and Minority Leader McConnell: </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">The National Federation of the Blind supports and endorses Section 6 of the Raise the Wage Act, H.R. 603 / S. 53 introduced by Chairman Bobby Scott in the House and Senator Bernard Sanders in the Senate. Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act permits employers to pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage. Section 6 would discontinue the issuance of Section 14(c) certificates upon its passage and gradually increase, over a period of five years, the minimum wage for disabled 14(c) employees until it was at least at the level of the federal minimum wage. We strongly support this section of the bill and we urge the United States Congress to immediately enact this provision into law.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">Signed into law in 1938, Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act permits employers, through the use of special certificates granted by the US Department of Labor, to pay “individuals whose earning or productive capacities are impaired by a physical or mental disability”<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 13.5px; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;">1</span> at a rate less than the statutory minimum. This is a discriminatory practice that the National Federation of the Blind has been fighting to end since our inception in 1940. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">Furthermore, independent governmental agencies like the National Council on Disability (NCD) and the United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) have both weighed in on this issue over the past year. In an October 2020 report titled Policies from the Past in a Modern Era: The Unintended Consequences of the AbilityOne Program & Section 14(c), NCD wrote “Since the passage of the Rehabilitation Act, disability-related statutes and policies have all sought to remedy inaccessibility, inequity, and segregation,” and that Section 14(c) is now a “significant exception to the norms of modern disability policy.”<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 13.5px; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;">2</span> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">Just one month before that, in September 2020, the USCCR, in a report titled <br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Subminimum Wages: Impacts on the Civil Rights of People with Disabilities published a list of recommendations regarding subminimum wages for people with disabilities. The first of these recommendations is that “Congress should repeal Section 14(c) with a planned phase-out period to allow transition among service providers and people with disabilities to alternative service models prioritizing competitive integrated employment.”<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 13.5px; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;">3</span> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">Both the nation’s leading independent governmental agency on disability and the leading independent governmental commission on civil rights agree that the practice of paying subminimum wages to people with disabilities is an antiquated relic from our country’s past that needs to be abolished. Section 6 of H.R. 603, the Raise the Wage Act of 2021, would prohibit the issuance of new 14(c) certificates immediately upon its passage. Furthermore, Section 6 would gradually increase the wages of all individuals being paid subminimum wages under current 14(c) certificates over a five-year period until they matched or exceeded the federal minimum wage. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">As the President of the premier membership organization of blind Americans, a blind person myself, and the father of two blind daughters, I strongly urge you to keep Section 6 of the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 included in the bill as it moves through Congress, whether as a standalone bill, or as a part of a larger piece of legislation. This section of the act will remove a piece of discrimination that has been codified into our national law and promote more equal economic opportunity for all Americans with disabilities. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">Sincerely,</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">Mark A. Riccobono, President<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">National Federation of the Blind </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.8; padding: 0px;">CC: Senator Bernard Sanders, Chairman, Senate Budget Committee<br style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Representative Robert Scott, Chairman, House Education and Labor Committee</p></div></div></article></div></div>———-<br><div dir="ltr">Denise Valkema, President <span style="font-size: 13pt;">National Federation of the Blind of Florida </span><div>(305)972-8529<br><div><span style="font-size: 13pt;">president@nfbflorida.org</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 13pt;">www.nfbflorida.org</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Follow us @nfbflorida</span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: 13pt;">You can live the life you want.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation’s blind. Every day we work together to help blind people live the lives they want.</span></div></div></body></html>