[nfbmi-talk] of course access hates this

[joe harcz Comcast]

By the way Peckham is a big player in ACCESS....It's the lobbying group for the slavers....
(Note: the organization ACCESS referenced here is the lobbying group for the shelterred shops! Of course they oppose this. Joe))

 

 

After Outcry, White House Extends $10.10 Minimum Wage to Some Disabled Workers

February 12, 2014

by Mike Elk

 

This

post

was first published in In These Times.

 

A protest outside Union Station on July 19, 2013, where dozens of concession workers walked off the job and held a rally demanding better pay from vendors

in federal buildings.

 

A protest outside Union Station on July 19, 2013, where dozens of concession workers walked off the job and held a rally demanding better pay from vendors

in federal buildings. President Obama is set to sign the executive order raising contractors’ wages today.

Earlier this month, Working In These Times

broke the news

that Obama’s promise to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for federal contractors would not apply to thousands of disabled workers currently receiving

subminimum wages — some as low as pennies an hour — under a special exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act known as 14(c).

 

Now, Working In These Times

has learned

that following public outcry from disability, civil rights and labor organizations — as well as from President Obama’s own independent advisory board, the

National Council on Disability — the administration has decided to include some disabled workers employed in 14(c) programs in the wage increase.

 

President Obama is set to sign the executive order raising contractors’ wages today. According to a White House press statement released this morning, the

order will now ensure that people with disabilities “working under service or concessions contracts with the federal government will be covered by the

same $10.10 per hour minimum wage protections.”

 

Currently, 420,000 disabled workers nationwide

are making subminimum wages

in 14(c) programs. Disability advocates say there are no firm statistics on how many of these workers are employed by government contractors, but the number

is estimated in the thousands. The programs are controversial: While some advocates say that they provide valuable opportunities for disabled workers to

learn new skills and eventually get jobs, others argue that the programs treat disabled workers as second-class citizens and maintain a situation in which

people with disabilities are three times more likely than other American to live in poverty.

 

Many disability advocates were outraged when they learned on a January 29 conference call with the White House that the federal contracting wage boost announced

in the president’s State of the Union address would not apply to 14(c) workers. The National Council on Disability (NCD), a presidentially appointed independent

advisory board, wrote in a

statement,

“NCD believes that the Section 14(c) program is a policy relic from the 1930s, when discrimination was inevitable because service systems were based on

a charity model, rather than empowerment and self-determination, and when societal low expectations for people with disabilities colored policymaking.”

 

Last week, a coalition of 25 civil rights, disability and labor organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the AFL-CIO and the Autistic

Self-Advocacy Network, joined the dissent, issuing a

letter

stating that, “All employees of federal contractors should mean all employees, regardless of disability status. We believe … that it is both economically

sound and morally just to ensure that people with disabilities have access to the same wage protections as those without.”

 

One disability advocacy group, however, defended the exemption. Terry R. Farmer, executive director of ACCSES, a coalition representing employers of disabled

workers and a longtime supporter of 14(c) programs, wrote in a February 5 letter to the Obama administration, “There are hundreds of thousands of people

with disabilities nationwide who are protected from job loss by the ability to pay them based on their productivity levels.  Eliminating the commensurate

wage would likely result in individuals with significant disabilities receiving no pay whatsoever instead of a wage that is commensurate with their productivity;

consequently denying them the tangible as well as the intangible benefits of work.”

 

 

Link:

 

http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/12/after-outcry-white-house-extends-10-10-minimum-wage-to-some-disabled-workers/