[Rehab] Question about WIOA and Subminimum Wage Sheltered Workshops

Angel238 angel238 at sbcglobal.net
Mon Jan 21 01:15:05 UTC 2019 

I wrote a paper on the sheltered workshop situation in the early 1970's.  I 
assume the same principle still stands.  There were exemptions granted to 
sheltered workshops.  Giving them the legal right not to pay their workers 
minimum wage.  The idea being:  Government stipends would be drastically 
cut, or eliminated altogether, .  If minimum wage were to be paid.  Should 
there be a time when workers would be discharged, for whatever reason; there 
would be a lag time before their government stipends would be restored.  The 
question would be, then:  How those people would survive till that time 
came.    I believe there is a place for the sheltered workshop, however. 
Where it might not be profitable for the workers to be paid the minimum 
wage.  Many who work at sheltered facilities are mentally challenged.  These 
workers aren't able to work successfully in a competitive environment.  If 
sheltered workshops were required by law to pay the minimum wage, they would 
no longer be sheltered.  Enabling sighted mentally capable people to fill 
jobs formerly held by those who, for one reason or other, aren't able to 
work in a competitive environment.  I heard last year of an undocumented 
alien, in my local area, who was deported.  He was working at a job which we 
blind people use to perform, in those days at our local sheltered workshop 
for the blind.  Admittedly, he was receiving at least the minimum wage.  The 
job at which he worked was not given to one of us blind workers.  Rather it 
was given to a person who was, firstly sighted, and secondly, wasn't 
supposed to be in this country at all.  How many similar jobs are taken from 
persons possessing various challenges.  Simply because there are sighted 
able-bodied persons willing to do the work.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roanna Bacchus via Rehab" <rehab at nfbnet.org>
To: "Daniel Frye via Rehab" <rehab at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "Roanna Bacchus" <rbacchus228 at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2019 4:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Rehab] Question about WIOA and Subminimum Wage Sheltered 
Workshops


> Hi Dan thanks for your message. I have a question for you. How are 
> sheltered workshops able to pay sub-minimum wages to their workers?
>
> Roanna Bacchus
>
> On Jan 20, 2019 3:31 PM, Daniel Frye via Rehab <rehab at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Justin:
>>
>>
>> Yes, everything you offer here makes intuitive sense. As it relates to 
>> delivering of the service in the Pre-ETS context, I would have to dip 
>> back into the policy directive issued by the rehabilitation services 
>> administration. I believe, though, that the same rules that apply to 
>> subjecting people to sub-minimum wage work may apply here as well. This, 
>> however, may be an exception, but it should not be, in a decent or 
>> progressive rehabilitation agency. Even if it is not the law, where I 
>> directing the agency, we would not subject students to anything 
>> resembling sub-minimum-wage work. It is not consistent with the creation 
>> of good expectations or, as you say, A realistic or formative job 
>> experience.
>>
>> Dan Frye
>> (410) 241-7006 (personal mobile)
>>
>> Please forgive brevity and any typographical errors.
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> > On 20 Jan 2019, at 3:15 pm, Justin Salisbury <PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu> 
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > Hi Dan,
>> >
>> > Thanks so much for your reply. You're the kind of expert I was looking 
>> > for.
>> >
>> > It sounded to me like those states were actually providing these 
>> > programs as Pre-ETS services, as if the subminimum wage sheltered 
>> > workshops were the chosen service provider to administer a Pre-ETS VR 
>> > service. I think the transition-age students are getting paid a minimum 
>> > wage, but what I am concerned with is the idea that they're getting 
>> > their introduction to work from a place that just should not be 
>> > introducing anybody to work.
>> >
>> > It's hard for me to put my finger on it, but I just feel like there's a 
>> > strong influence that the first employer will have over somebody. When 
>> > I think of the first employer who gave me a real job, I think of them 
>> > with gratitude, and I feel a sense of allegiance to them because they 
>> > gave me an opportunity. I guess I feel like that about basically 
>> > everyone who has ever employed me. Following that, when these 
>> > transition-age youth go on to look for employment after high school or 
>> > maybe college, those subminimum wage sheltered workshops will have a 
>> > special place in their heart and may even be the first place that they 
>> > look. The special provisions of the Pre-ETS program will be over, and 
>> > they run the risk of getting sucked into the same old subminimum wage 
>> > sheltered workshop system that we talk about so often in the 
>> > Federation.
>> >
>> > Additionally, I'm sure that there are some unproductive behaviors or 
>> > other workplace themes that the workshop will be likely to impose upon 
>> > them, even if it's unintentional. Even if the Pre-ETS folks are placed 
>> > in community job settings, they're still going to spend some time at 
>> > the workshop for orientations or something, and they're naturally going 
>> > to identify with the adult role models that they see in the workshop. 
>> > If I had seen that kind of thing when I was in high school, I would 
>> > have thought something like, "My God, is that really what my future is 
>> > going to be? Life really sucks when you have a disability. My career 
>> > prospects disappeared with my eyesight."
>> >
>> > Does that make sense?
>> >
>> > Aloha,
>> >
>> > Justin
>> >
>> > -----Original Message----- 
>> > From: Daniel Frye <dbfrye0468 at gmail.com>
>> > Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2019 5:54 AM
>> > To: Rehabilitation Counselor Mailing List <rehab at nfbnet.org>
>> > Cc: Justin Salisbury <PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu>
>> > Subject: Re: [Rehab] Question about WIOA and Subminimum Wage Sheltered 
>> > Workshops
>> >
>> > It certainly violates the spirit of the law. And, if the vocational 
>> > rehabilitation agencies in question do not undertake a significant 
>> > amount of paperwork, getting the consumers to except these terms, and 
>> > not ask for VR services, it is definitely a violation, based on my most 
>> > recent understanding of the law. There are pending regulations that may 
>> > change the definition of integrated, competitive employment, but to the 
>> > best of my knowledge these have yet to be fully adopted.
>> >
>> > Dan Frye
>> > (410) 241-7006 (personal mobile)
>> >
>> > Please forgive brevity and any typographical errors.
>> > Sent from my iPhone
>> >
>> >> On 20 Jan 2019, at 2:03 am, Justin Salisbury via Rehab 
>> >> <rehab at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Aloha everyone,
>> >>
>> >> I was talking with a friend today and came out of that conversation 
>> >> with a question about how WIOA Pre-ETS funding works. Some state VR 
>> >> agencies have been setting up Summer Youth Employment Programs where 
>> >> they contract in subminimum wage sheltered workshops to administer the 
>> >> summer work experiences. To me, this seems to go against the spirit of 
>> >> WIOA, but I don't know if it violates the actual federal VR policy.
>> >>
>> >> Can anyone tell me if it does?
>> >>
>> >> Mahalo,
>> >>
>> >> Justin
>> >>
>> >> Justin M. Hideaki Salisbury, MA, NOMC, NCRTB, NCUEB Board Member |
>> >> National Association of Blind Students
>> >> A proud division of the National Federation of the Blind
>> >> (808) 797-8606
>> >> president at alumni.ecu.edu | www.nabslink.org<http://www.nabslink.org/>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
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