[nabs-l] The Subminimum Wage Issue

[Michael Forzano]

Hi Arielle,

At any job, whether you have a disability or not, your wages depend on
your performance. Of course, if you're earning minimum wage, and
aren't subject to the subminimum wage exception, you get fired if you
underperform for a long enough time. So no, employees being paid
subminimum wage are not the only ones being judged based on their
performance.

I do agree you have a point about parents'/guardians discouraging
people from doing what they might be capable of, making them think
subminimum wage jobs are their only option when that might not be the
case. But that problem stretches way beyond minimum wage. I think it
is the reason many blind people don't apply for jobs at all. The NFB
should focus on trying to solve that problem as a whole, rather than
fixating on this issue that affects only a tiny percentage of people.

I'd be interested to hear about the Harvard law student who was once
paid subminimum wage. I can't help wondering why he chose to stay at
that job, since he clearly knows what he is capable of if he is at
Harvard.

Overall, my point is that the subminimum wage program is designed for
people who actually can't perform a minimum wage job. Apparently some
high-functioning blind people ended up in these jobs, whether it was
because they were discouraged by their parents or some other reason.
That just means they were incorrectly put into the program, not that
the program doesn't serve a purpose. Again, it might be the only
option for severely disabled people other than sitting at home for the
rest of their lives.

Mike

On 4/2/14, justin williams <justin.williams2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Everyone has the right to make minimum wage; while I understand your
> viewpoint of the employers possibly laying off those workers, noone, and I
> mean noone  should be forced to work for subminimum wage.  It simply is not
> fare, and it will be corrected.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michael
> Forzano
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2014 10:01 PM
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nabs-l] The Subminimum Wage Issue
>
> Hi All,
>
> I've been hearing a lot about the subminimum wage issue that the NFB is
> involved in, and the NFB's position honestly doesn't make sense to me.
>
> My understanding is that the people being paid subminimum wages have
> disabilities in addition to blindness that prevent them from doing the job
> as productively as someone being paid minimum wage, such as cerebral palsy.
> If subminimum wages are eliminated, it seems pretty clear to me that the
> employers would lay off the people in question.
> After all, if you suddenly have to pay an employee hundreds of times more
> than you were paying them for the same amount of work/productivity, I don't
> think you'd have much choice.
>
> People being paid suvminimum wage are likely in that situation because they
> have no other choice, that is, their disabilities prevent them from working
> even a minimum wage job. If the NFB succeeds, these people will likely have
> no job at all and be forced to spend their lives sitting at home on SSI.
> How
> is that helping them? at least right now, they have a job, something to
> keep
> them busy.
>
> I'm curious to see how the NFB is arguing against this because it seems
> pretty clear to me from a business perspective. As much as the employers
> may
> want to continue to employ these people it just won't make sense.
>
> Mike
>
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