[nfbmi-talk] Fw: md law would end sub-minimum wages for pwd

[David Robinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: joe harcz Comcast 
To: Sarah Gravetti MISILC DNM 
Cc: Rodney Craig ED MSILC ; Elmer Cerano MPAS ; Mark A. Riccobono NFB Pres. ; Yasmina bouraoui Deputy Dir. DDC ; Vandella Collins Dir. MDDC ; Marlene Malloy MCRS Dir. ; BRIAN SABOURIN ; tculver at maro.org ; Jill Gerrie MI ARC ; Norm DeLisle MDRC ; Theresa Squires MDRC ; Lt. Gov. Brian Calley ; Laura Hall ADAPT MDRC 
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2016 1:00 PM
Subject: md law would end sub-minimum wages for pwd


Time for Michigan to do likewise and more!
Law would end sub-minimum wages for disabled

By JOSH MAGNESS Capital News Service My Eastern Shore, Maryland

 

ANNAPOLIS — During Mat Rice’s time as a student at the Maryland School for the Blind, the disability advocate said he would work at a place openly referred

to as “the workshop.”

 

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Rice, who has spastic cerebral palsy and is legally blind, said he would crush cans and shred paper when in the workshop. Each day, he said, he received

a piece rate wage based on the amount of cans and paper he would get through, earning about 10 cents a piece and “definitely” falling below federal minimum

wage of of $7.25 an hour.

 

At first, Rice thought the practice was confined solely to the school. But once Rice started working with disability rights groups, he said, he learned

it was legal for many institutions to pay their workers with disabilities a sub-minimum wage.

 

The Minimum Wage and Community Integration Act — a pair of bills that passed both the Maryland House and Senate with wide, bipartisan majorities — aims

to end that practice.

 

As of January, 36 in-state organizations were authorized to pay just over 3,600 workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage, according to a legislative

analysis.

 

The legislation does away with 14(c) certificates, which enable certain employers and work activities centers to pay their employees with disabilities based

on productivity instead of at a fixed rate. The two bills also require a worker with disabilities who is paid a sub-minimum wage and a supervisor to outline

a plan to get a job with non-disabled coworkers.

 

Ending the confinement of workers with disabilities to their own workplaces is one reason why the legislation is so important, Rice said.

 

But the most pressing issue is ensuring employers can no longer pay their workers with disabilities a sub-minimum wage, which constitutes a civil rights

violation, said Rice, a public policy specialist for People on the Go, an advocacy group for Marylanders with physical and mental disabilities.

 

“We have a practice here that singles out people with disabilities,” Rice said, “and says that because you are judged to be less than productive, then we

can pay you less than any other group of people within the state.”

 

Starting Oct. 1, 2016, the Maryland commissioner of labor and industry may not authorize additional work centers to pay their workers a sub-minimum wage.

 

The legislation tapers off the ability for employers to receive permission to pay less than the minimum wage to workers with disabilities, but allows companies

that received a 14(c) certificate before the Oct. 1 deadline to continue paying sub-minimum wages under certain circumstances for four years.

 

By Oct. 1, 2017, the Developmental Disabilities Administration and the Department of Disabilities must submit a plan to the governor and the General Assembly

outlining the transition away from sub-minimum wages, which becomes final on Oct. 1, 2020.

 

The bills also allow those centers that have a certificate granted before 2016 to continue paying their workers below the “prevailing wage” — or the pay

given to a majority of workers in a certain field — after the 2020 deadline, as long as they keep the certification.

 

The bill is on the desk of Gov. Larry Hogan, awaiting his signature.

 

Follow me on Twitter @andrew_stardem.com.

 

Source:

http://www.myeasternshoremd.com/news/state_regional/article_142d6979-b4c2-5ac4-aac6-b8bcc82d8ebb.html