[Nfbmt] This is priceless!

Fri Nov 22 02:59:28 UTC 2013

Hi all!

I'm catching up on some mail I meant to send here!

Jim

From:Lewis, AnilTo:nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.orgAffiliate 
Presidents (state-affiliate-leadership-list at nfbnet.org)Cc:NFB Chapter 
Presidents discussion list 
(chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org)Subject:[State-affiliate-leadership-list] 
75 Years of the Fair Labor Standards Act and People with Disabilities 
Have No Reason to Celebrate

75 Years of the Fair Labor Standards Act and People with Disabilities 
Have No Reason to Celebrate

Submitted by alewis on Fri, 11/15/2013 - 11:59

Blog Date:

Friday, November 15, 2013

By Anil Lewis

https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/75-years-fair-labor-standards-act-and-people-disabilities-have-no-reason-celebrate

Today, the U.S. Department of Labor will be celebrating the 75th 
anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) with an all-day 
program.  There will be a host of presentations on various wage and 
workplace achievements.  However, a significant topic will not be 
discussed: Section 14(c) of the FLSA.

In 1938, the year Section 14(c) of the FLSA was enacted, the federal 
minimum wage was 25 cents per hour. At that time, Section 14(c) 
provided workers with disabilities a wage floor of 75 percent of the 
federal minimum wage.  In 1966, this wage floor was reduced to 50 
percent of the federal minimum wage.  Then, in 1986 the wage floor was 
entirely eliminated.  Today, seventy-five years after Section 14(c) was 
enacted, there are workers with disabilities being paid less than the 
federal minimum wage of 25 cents that was guaranteed to non-disabled 
workers in 1938.

You may ask why this provision was ever integrated into the FLSA.  The 
belief was that people with disabilities cannot be productive 
employees.  The social experiment, established under a misguided 
assumption, was that if you create environments where people with 
disabilities are provided an opportunity to engage in work-like 
activities in segregated environments that provide the tangible and 
intangible benefits of work, these individuals will be better off.  
Today approximately three thousand subminimum-wage employers or 
“incubators” exist, creating over four-hundred-thousand social 
beneficiaries with disabilities being paid less than the federal 
minimum wage.  Data show that less than 5 percent of people with 
disabilities working in these subminimum-wage work environments ever 
secure competitive integrated employment.  I think it is safe to say 
that this seventy-five-year-old social experiment of low expectations, 
segregation, and subminimum wages has failed.

Fortunately, due to the creativity, innovation, and dedication of 
entities committed to helping individuals with significant disabilities 
to reach their full vocational potential, a parallel experiment is 
taking place.  This perspective begins with the belief that all people 
can work, and that when provided the proper training, support, and 
opportunities, individuals with significant disabilities can acquire an 
employable job skill worthy of being paid at least the federal minimum 
wage.  The Employment First movement, expanding the use of supported 
employment and customized employment strategies, is creating a paradigm 
shift in the belief in the capacity of workers with disabilities.  
Individuals with significant disabilities are receiving training from 
experts, making it possible for them to take advantage of a variety of 
competitive integrated employment opportunities where they earn at 
least the federal minimum wage.

The assertion of subminimum-wage employers that workers with 
disabilities cannot be productive employees is being proven false, and 
subminimum-wage employers must acknowledge that they do not have the 
expertise they claim to possess.  We must discard the failed approach 
of segregated subminimum-wage workshops and embrace the innovative 
strategies of competitive integrated training and employment that have 
proven to cost less and produce better employment outcomes.

To those in attendance: enjoy the celebration.  The National Federation 
of the Blind, along with sixty-five other organizations, will be busy 
working to repeal this discriminatory provision. The Fair Wages for 
Workers with Disabilities Act of 2013, HR 831, which will phase out the 
use of Section 14(c) Special Wage Certificate over a three-year period, 
is our hope for a better future.  I pray that it will not take another 
seventy-five years to see the error of this discriminatory policy.

Mr. Anil Lewis, M.P.A.

Director of Advocacy and Policy

“Eliminating Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities”

http://www.nfb.org/fairwages

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place

Baltimore, Maryland   21230

(410) 659-9314 ext. 2374 (Voice)

(410) 685-5653 (FAX)

Email: alewis at nfb.org

Web: www.nfb.org

twitter: @anillife

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