[Nfbmt] About the Time Act

[bruce&Joy Breslauer]

On August 5, 2015, Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) introduced the Transitioning
to Integrated and Meaningful Employment (TIME) Act (S. 2001) in the United
States Senate. Senator Ayotte introduced this legislation to repeal Section
14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, in order to incentivize the
transitioning of workers with disabilities into integrated, meaningful
employment, and to phase out the discriminatory practice of paying workers
with disabilities pennies per hour. 

 

S. 2001 is the Senate counterpart of House bill H.R. 188, introduced in the
House of Representatives by Congressman Gregg Harper of Mississippi on

January 7, 2015.  We talked about that with them when we came back there for
Washington Seminar at the end of January.

 

If nothing else, fax or send the fact sheet (see below) for the TIME Act to
their local offices, and ask Senator Steve Daines and senator Jon Tester to
cosponsor the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment ( TIME)
Act, S. 2001, in the Senate, and Congressman Ryan Zinke to cosponsor H.R.
188 in the House of Representatives.  The sooner we do this, the sooner we
may get this passed.  This is urgent.  

 


The Issue of Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities


Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment Act (TIME Act) (H.R.
188) (S. 2001)


 

Current labor laws unjustly prohibit workers with disabilities from reaching
their full vocational and socioeconomic potential.

 

Written in 1938, Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
discriminates against people with disabilities. The provision allows the
Secretary of Labor to grant Special Wage Certificates to employers,
permitting them to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal
minimum wage. This is based on the false assumption that disabled workers
are less productive than nondisabled workers, but successful employment
models have emerged in the last seventy-five years to assist people with
significant disabilities in acquiring the job skills needed for competitive
work. Section 14(c) sustains segregated subminimum wage workshops that
exploit disabled workers, paying some only pennies an hour for mundane,
repetitive tasks.

The subminimum wage model fails to provide adequate training or employment
to disabled workers. Data shows that less than five percent of the
four-hundred thousand workers with disabilities in segregated subminimum
wage workshops will transition into competitive integrated work. Moreover,
research shows that the subminimum wage model costs more but actually
produces less! In fact, workers must unlearn the useless skills they acquire
in order to obtain meaningful employment. It is poor policy to reward such
failed programs with wage exemptions, preferential federal contracts, and
public and charitable contributions.

 

After more than seventy-five years of demonstrated failure, it is time to
invest in proven, effective models for employment. Section 14(c) sustains
the same segregated subminimum wage environments that existed in 1938 and
has proven to be extremely ineffective and offers no incentive for
mainstream employers to hire people with disabilities. The EmploymentFirst
Movement promotes new concepts such as "supported" or "customized"
employment that are successful at producing competitive integrated
employment outcomes for individuals with significant disabilities that were
previously thought to be unemployable.

 

The Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment Act will
responsibly phase out Section 14(c) over a three year period and will
eventually repeal the antiquated and discriminatory practice of paying
people with disabilities subminimum wages. Americans with disabilities will
no longer be trapped in segregated subminimum wage workshops. Current
service providers will have three years to transition to a proven
competitive integrated training and employment business model that assists
individuals with even the most significant disabilities obtain real jobs at
real wages.

 

To learn more about the issue and the Transitioning to Integrated and
Meaningful Employment Act, please read our frequently asked questions
document.

NFB Fact Sheet (Web <https://nfb.org/timefactsheet> , Word
<https://nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/word/strategic_initiatives/time.docx>
, PDF <https://nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/pdf/timepdf.pdf> , Audio
<https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/misc_2014/2014_legislative_agenda/02_fact_
sheet_1.mp3> )

Frequently Asked Questions (Word
<https://nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/word/strategic_initiatives/time%20faq%
208.17.15.docx> )

 

Please let me know when you have successful contacts, and in what form,
whether they be face to face or fax.  Thank you.

 

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Email: president at nfbofmt.org

Web Site: www.nfbofmt.org

 

Live the life you want 

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.