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<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">From Anil
Lewis:</blockquote><br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> <br>
We can set an expectation of full participation, or we can continue to
feed the fallacy of incapacity. <br>
<br>
It is the ignorance of the capacity of people with disabilities to be
productive employees that perpetuates the existence of Section 14(c) of
the Fair Labor Standards Act, a law that denies the guarantee of a
federal minimum wage to workers with disabilities. Moreover, it is
frustrating to find that a few individuals with disabilities are
reluctant to support our efforts to repeal this unfair, discriminatory,
immoral provision. Some have become so institutionalized that they
don’t recognize their own capacity. It was not too long ago that
most of us were subjected to society’s low expectations, with limited
opportunities to secure competitive employment in a career that meets our
unique skills, interests, and abilities. Others have become such
elitists that they now exhibit the same ignorance that denied them the
opportunity to be fully participating citizens. It is a sad irony
that these individuals, who were formerly denied training and employment
opportunities because others felt they had no capacity, now superimpose
the same lack of capacity on others, denying them the necessary training
and support to obtain competitive employment. <br>
<br>
People with disabilities have the right and ability to work in the same
jobs earning the same wages as nondisabled workers. There are many
examples of individuals with significant disabilities who, when provided
with the proper training and support, have acquired a competitive job
skill to earn at least minimum wage. We should support this outcome
for all workers with disabilities. Very few, if any, disabled or
nondisabled individuals acquire a competitive job skill through
performing menial tasks in sheltered, segregated, subminimum-wage work
environments. We must set higher expectations and provide real
training and support for all people to be fully participating members of
society. <br>
<br>
Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is not the
compassionate offering of an opportunity for workers with disabilities to
experience the tangible and intangible benefits of work. Section
14(c) is a poor public policy that actually harms people with
disabilities, prohibiting most from obtaining competitive, integrated
employment by denying educational and training opportunities. <br>
<ul>
<li>Approximately 33 percent of students in Kindergarten through grade 12
have sheltered subminimum-wage workshops as their vocational goal.
We have given up on them before they have been provided a proper
education, and they will never reach their full potentiala generation
lost.
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Approximately 95 percent of people employed in a subminimum-wage work
environment will never transition out of that environment. They
will never receive the necessary training and support to be productive
employees. They will remain beneficiaries of public programs, never
to become fully participating citizens.
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Approximately 50 percent of workers with disabilities who are
employed under a special wage certificate earn less than half the federal
minimum wage. They are paid, supposedly based on their
productivity, to work in menial jobs determined by their employer, not
jobs that meet their strengths, interests, unique talents, or
abilities.
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Approximately 25 percent of workers with disabilities employed under
a special wage certificate earn less than $1 per hour. We have
documentation of a worker with a disability being paid 3 cents per
hour. This is an assertion, day after day, that they are not as
good as everyone else.
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Research shows that many of the skills acquired in a sheltered,
subminimum-wage work environment must be unlearned in order for a worker
with a disability to obtain competitive integrated employment.
Subminimum wage skills only perpetuate subminimum wage employment.
Real training must be provided in order to obtain real work.
</ul> <br>
We applaud entities that help jobseekers with disabilities to develop new
skills, gain work experience, and find jobs through employment planning,
skills training, job search and development, placement, and ongoing
employment support. However, for far too long we have accepted the
subminimum wage employer's assertions of lack of capacity without asking
the necessary questions. <br>
<ul>
<li>How many people does your organization transition into competitive
integrated employment? Can you provide me with the data?
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Why are there other organizations putting people with significant
disabilities to work at the minimum wage that sheltered workshops have
refused?
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Is a person with a disability really choosing to work in a
subminimum-wage work environment when they have not received the proper
training and support to consider competitive employment, or when they
have only been presented with a choice between subminimum-wage employment
and no employment at all?
</ul>
<ul>
<li>If you don’t believe that workers with disabilities can be
productive, why are you in the business of providing employment for
workers with disabilities?
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Who makes the decision for your organization that a person cannot be
productive? How do they make the decision? What training have
they received in the productive placement of a worker with a
disability?
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Why have some workshops been able to successfully transition their
business model to one that pays federal minimum wages or more to their
employees with disabilities, without loss of jobs or revenue, and your
organization cannot?
</ul>
<ul>
<li>If your organization does not pay less than the minimum wage to
workers with disabilities, why should others be allowed to do so?
</ul> <br>
We should emphasize competitive, integrated employment as the only
outcome that can be considered real employment. Anything else is
just glorified daycare that sends false messages of incapacity to
individuals who could become competitively employed. H.R. 3086
removes the ability for employers to legally pay subminimum wages to
workers with disabilities, setting higher expectations for the employers,
as well as, the employees. <br>
<br>
Some will still state that there are those individuals who are so
severely disabled that they cannot be competitively employed. New
strategies evolve every day that prove this statement to be false.
However, if there are truly individuals too severely disabled to perform
competitive work, it is illogical and demoralizing to make a decision
that employment at subminimum wages (pennies per hour) is the best
outcome for these individuals. There is a better reality that we
can provide for these individuals other than having them toil away, day
after day, for pennies an hour. <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Mr. Anil Lewis, M.P.A.<br>
“Eliminating Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities” <br>
<a href="http://www.nfb.org/fairwages">http://www.nfb.org/fairwages</a>
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