[Nfbk] ] [nfbwatlk] SUB MINIMUM WAGE

Mon Aug 13 18:03:07 UTC 2012

From: Lewis, Anil 
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 1:36 PM
To: Carl Jarvis ; Frye, Daniel ; NFBof Washington Talk Mailing List 
Cc: Feder, Emily 
Subject: Re: [Chapter-presidents] [nfbwatlk] SUB MINIMUM WAGE

Please post the following thread to appropriate listservs.

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.  

  a.. 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 potential—a generation lost.  

  a.. 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.  

  a.. 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.  

  a.. 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.  

  a.. 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.  

  a.. How many people does your organization transition into competitive integrated employment?  Can you provide me with the data?  

  a.. Why are there other organizations putting people with significant disabilities to work at the minimum wage that sheltered workshops have refused?  

  a.. 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?  

  a.. 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?  

  a.. 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?  

  a.. 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?  

  a.. 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

From: Carl Jarvis [mailto:carjar82 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 11:06 AM
To: Frye, Daniel; NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List
Cc: Lewis, Anil; Feder, Emily
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] SUB MINIMUM WAGE

Dan, 

Well stated.  Of course it speaks to human nature not just to us blind people.  

We are quick to cry out when our own rights are trampled, and we can expand our outrage to include those of our own immediate circle, but we become indifferent and insensitive when others are treated in the same manner.  

I am reminded of the words of pastor Martin Niemöller:   

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. 

If each of us fails to stand up and defend the human dignity of all people, who will stand up for us when the heavy boot of discrimination is on our own neck?  

Are we really so shallow that we place productivity ahead of human dignity?  Why does a person have to produce so many widgets an hour in order to deserve a basic living standard?  

What is it in our nature that allows us to see the cold, harsh discrimination placed upon us blind people, and then turn about and do exactly the same to others who we have lumped into a category called, "The Less Fortunate".  

Do we no longer believe that a government of the people should care for all of its people?  When did we turn on our own people and hitch our wagon to the coat tails of the wealthy, pretending that we might one day be like them?  

Are we honestly willing to abandon our brothers and sisters in the hope that we will receive a pat on the head by the Master?  

Pretending that we are better than some of our own members is not going to change how the public sees us as blind people.  The very brightest and most accomplished of us are measured by the same Universal Blind Stereotype as is the most unaccomplished, unskilled member of our blind community.  It makes no difference to the World if I am the most remarkable blind man or a blind man burdened by multiple disabilities.  Blind trumps all in the minds of the general population.  

If we cut loose from some of our members, it will not put us in a more favorable light in the eye of the public, it will simply make us fewer in number.  

And how dare we proclaim our right to defend our equal status in the world, when we can't defend our own brothers and sisters?  What lesson are we passing along to future blind people?  Are we saying, "You must be blind by our standards if you are to have our support"?  

If, by demanding a decent standard of living for our members working in work shops means that some of those programs shut their doors and lay off their underpaid "workers", is that reason enough to fight to keep the programs open?  To allow them to continue to oppress our brothers and sisters?  For what purpose?  At what price?  

Would it not be better to fight for funding for the underpaid folks and provide them an environment where they can participate at whatever level they are able, and rejoice in their achievements.  

Carl Jarvis

  ----- Original Message ----- 

  From: Frye, Daniel 

  To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List 

  Cc: alewis at nfb.org ; Feder, Emily 

  Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 5:37 AM

  Subject: RE: [nfbwatlk] SUB MINIMUM WAGE

  Paul and Others In Sympathy With His Perspective:

  I could use this note to articulate all of the rationale, statistics, and philosophy to generate arguments for why paying sub-minimum wages to disabled people, while not having the same standard and policy for abled-body folks, is wrong. But I won't do this. Instead, I'll simply observe that I always find myself saddened and perplexed by blind people who can accept as a matter of policy that a general practice that treats our community differently from the majority is acceptable. If the inequity of treating disabled people differently from non-disabled people doesn't intuitively resonate with one, I hardly know what arguments I can advance that will get such people to see reason and fairness. And then I just wilt in resignation when these same "accomplished" blind folks, who justify discriminatory treatment by lamenting the hardship to business caused by those who are not productive, run on with a sense of self-righteous arrogance about their competence and capacity. How about transferring some of that skill that you've developed, no doubt all on your own, to demonstrating  some compassion towards those who may not be as successful as you. In all likelihood, you'll still get to feel superior to these poor, unfortunate creatures. They'll likely never earn $50,000 per year, so your worth will still stand unquestioned. We're advocating for a basic minimum that everybody shares in common; this is not a campaign for something as reasonable as an actual living wage or decent standard of living. Smile! Numbers and nuanced arguments notwithstanding, this is simply a matter of basic fairness and decency. So long as a minimum wage exists in law, let it apply to us all. So long as every non-disabled person is not subject to a productivity standard, let this practice apply universally. And, finally, if these folks who are exempt from receiving the minimum wage would not otherwise qualify as being employees, let's be honest, allow them to do the same thing, and call their program what it is--education, recreation, or some other euphemism to make people feel good about themselves.

  Dan Frye 

  -----Original Message-----
  From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike Freeman
  Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2012 5:50 PM
  To: 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'
  Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] SUB MINIMUM WAGE

  Paul:

  (1) NO two workers have the same productivity. Yet (at least in industry) workers doing a given job are supposed to be paid the same wage whether they are powerhouses of productivity or are just barely scraping by. Differences in worker output are usually made up in consequences such as whether workers get bonuses, how quickly and whether they advance or not, etc. Why should disabled workers of whatever talent be treated differently?

  (2) Most of the entities who are against paying minimum wages for disabled workers get massive subsidies from either various governmental agencies or from private donations. Presumably, all those who "employ" these workers do so in order to make them feel productive or useful. NO one gainsays such motives although I am often moved to wonder whether those who prattle on about the dignity of work (even at subminimum wages) would themselves deign to accept that reasoning as an excuse to be paid less than the Federal minimum wage. All that might even be OK except that these governmental and private agencies who "employ" these workers go on to sell the products of their labor, thus benefiting twice from that labor without compensatory benefits to the workers. And few of these agencies really train disabled workers to go out into private industry. Think about it: if you're a business, you *keep* your most productive workers. If you train people, you
  *place* your most productive workers. You can't have it both ways. Agencies can't have it both ways -- profiting from workers while paying them a pittance. That's little more than slavery IMO.

  Mike

  -----Original Message-----
  From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of PUBLIC RADIO 113
  Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2012 12:16 PM
  To: nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org
  Subject: [nfbwatlk] SUB MINIMUM WAGE

  Would you hire a driver who only drove 20 miles/hour on the freeway?  If any of you reading this ever ran a business of your own you would realize that you cannot afford to hire workers who are less productive.  When I began my medical transcription career in Chicago I earned far less than minimum wage because I was paid on the basis of the work I could turn out in an 8-hour day.  It took a while for me to get my typing speed up to 120 words/minute, but I did.  After 30 years of being an MT I retired in June.
  I made $50,000 last year WITH BENEFITS.  People who are so disabled that they cannot compete can always use SSDI, low-cost housing, food stamps, etc.,  to supplement their income.  It should not be up to the employer to
  provide a subsidy for disabled workers.   Let's pay congress what they're
  worth.

  --
  Paul Van Dyck

  www.publicradio113.weebly.com

  OR

  www.kboo.fm/soundsofawareness
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