[Ohio-talk] Fwd: NPR: Subminimum Wages For The Disabled: Godsend Or Exploitation?

Wed Apr 23 16:22:03 UTC 2014

I have worked with people who work in sheltered workshops and it cost
them more to get to work than they earned so they lost money.  Where
is the incentive in that?I also believe that many people can learn
some about the value of making money.

On 4/23/14, Deborah Kendrick <dkkendrick at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I heard this story this morning and it was very well done.  They ddn't
> interview any of our people, but the issues were presented clearly and well.
>
> Deborah
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ohio-talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Suzanne
> turner
> Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 8:42 AM
> To: ohio-talk at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [Ohio-talk] Fwd: NPR: Subminimum Wages For The Disabled: Godsend Or
> Exploitation?
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: dcm.aware at gmail.com
>> Date: April 23, 2014 at 8:34:35 AM EDT
>> To: SMTurner.234 at gmail.com
>> Subject: Fwd: NPR: Subminimum Wages For The Disabled: Godsend Or
>> Exploitation?
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> From: "Pare, John" <JPare at nfb.org>
>>> Date: April 23, 2014 at 8:19:12 AM EDT
>>> To: "ndla-steering-committee at googlegroups.com"
>>> <ndla-steering-committee at googlegroups.com>,
>>> "ndla-general-list- at googlegroups.com"
>>> <ndla-general-list- at googlegroups.com>
>>> Subject: NPR: Subminimum Wages For The Disabled: Godsend Or Exploitation?
>>> Reply-To: ndla-general-list- at googlegroups.com
>>>
>>> Subminimum Wages For The Disabled: Godsend Or Exploitation?
>>>
>>> by CHERYL CORLEY
>>> April 23, 2014 4:31 AM ET
>>> NPR Morning Edition
>>>
>>> The president recently signed an executive order raising the minimum
>>> hourly wage to $10.10 for workers employed by federal contractors --
>>> including those with disabilities.
>>>
>>> That's a victory for disabled workers who can make just pennies per hour
>>> at so-called sheltered workplaces.
>>>
>>> While some call sheltered workshops a godsend, others say they are
>>> examples of good intentions gone wrong.
>>>
>>> Sertoma Centre, located in Chicago's south suburbs, is one such
>>> organization. It provides employment opportunities to about 250 people
>>> with disabilities through subcontracting jobs such as packaging bottles
>>> for microbreweries.
>>>
>>> Pay at the Sertoma Centre and other sheltered workshops is regulated by
>>> the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, a law originally intended to
>>> encourage the hiring of veterans with disabilities. It allows companies --
>>> including some federal contractors -- to pay subminimum wages, based on
>>> how productive a person with disabilities is compared to a non-disabled
>>> worker doing the same task.
>>>
>>> At Sertoma, workers might earn anywhere from 25 cents to Illinois'
>>> minimum wage of $8.25 per hour.
>>>
>>> But the concept has increasingly come under fire by disability advocacy
>>> groups. They say the workshops reinforce a life of poverty, leaving
>>> thousands isolated and exploited by their employers.
>>>
>>> Curtis Decker, who heads the National Disability Rights Network, says
>>> that sheltered workshops were originally a good idea, a place where
>>> people "could get trained, be protected and learn some skills."
>>>
>>> But, he says, the concept is way out of date.
>>>
>>> "Forty or fifty years later, we have... people in these segregated
>>> workshops not moving out, not getting into competitive employment and
>>> making well below the minimum wage," he says.
>>>
>>> With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, there's been
>>> more emphasis on placing the disabled in the mainstream labor market.
>>> Decker and others are calling for an end to sheltered employment.
>>>
>>> They have the support of the Justice Department. Acting Assistant
>>> Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels recently announced a settlement with
>>> Rhode Island calling for the state to provide typical minimum wage jobs
>>> for disabled workers in their communities, and to phase out many
>>> sheltered workshops.
>>>
>>> "It is the promise of the American with Disabilities Act to open the
>>> doors of the American workplace to people with disabilities and to
>>> abolish the low expectations that have kept people with disabilities shut
>>> out of their communities for decades," Samuels says.
>>>
>>> Gus van den Brink says the Sertoma Centre and other agencies do work to
>>> find jobs for the disabled in the community, but the focus should not be
>>> on shutting down all sheltered workshops. He says it would be nearly
>>> impossible for some people with severe intellectual disabilities to get a
>>> job at all. It's sheltered workshops, he says, that give them a chance to
>>> work and earn a paycheck.
>>>
>>> "Some of the individuals may not even completely understand what the
>>> value of that paycheck is," van den Brink says. "But they know they are
>>> receiving a paycheck so they are getting a lot of self-esteem. They are
>>> very proud of it."
>>>
>>> Even so, Assistant Attorney General Samuels says the Justice Department
>>> will work with other states to make sure some workers with disabilities
>>> have the opportunity to do their work, as she puts it, at "real jobs for
>>> real wages."
>>>
>>> Listen to the story at:
>>> http://www.npr.org/2014/04/23/305854409/subminimum-wages-for-the-disabled-godsend-or-exploitation?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=share&utm_medium=twitter
>>> --
>>> The National Disability Leadership Alliance(NDLA) is a national
>>> cross-disability coalition that represents the authentic voice of people
>>> with disabilities. To subscribe to the list, send a request to
>>> gary8970 at gmail.com
>>> ---
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-- 
Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
(513) 607-6053