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

[Terry D. Eagle]

Congratulations and thanks to the advocates and compassionate legislators of
Maryland!

Indeed, it is time to abolish legal slavery in Michigan, and give dignity
and overdue respect to persons with disAbilities!

Hooray!  Hooray!  On the way to equal pay!  The start of a new chant and
perhaps a song to be sung at a protest.  Warning:  Loudly proclaiming such a
phrase just may get you arrested and charged with a felony crime in
Michigan, if chanted at the Michigan Capitol, especially if the governor or
governor are present or within earshot of the chant.  Then those who profess
to want to abolish submimimum wage will be no place to be found, and you
left to fend for yourself.


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."

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-b4c2-5a
c4-aac6-b8bcc82d8ebb.html
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