#subminimum wage

Some disabled folks are able to work, some are not.

Some disabled folks are able to work a full time job, some are not.

Some disabled folks are able to do manual labor, some are not.

But, no matter what, no one is worth more or less than someone else.

In this capitalist society, it's important to remember that your worth is not tied to or based on your productivity.

The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing a sweeping new rule that would put an end to the decades-old practice of allowing employers to pay workers with disabilities less than minimum wage.

The agency issued a proposed rule this week to phase out what are known as 14(c) certificates. Under a federal law dating back to 1938, employers can obtain the special certificates from the government to pay those with disabilities less than the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.

If the rule is finalized, the Labor Department would immediately cease issuing new certificates. At that point, existing certificate holders would have three years to stop paying workers with disabilities so-called subminimum wage. (Read more at link)

[content note: extreme ableism; sexual violence]

When I was three, my adult aunt Virginia came to live with us. What was then her clinical diagnosis is the [R] slur… She is developmentally disabled and intellectually impaired. That slur was enshrined in the names of organizations that helped her while I was growing up and was flung around my schoolyards for cruelty...

Virginia had a series of sexual aggressions in her sheltered workshop. It was always hard to get the story. ...My mother took days off from work and tried to talk her supervisors into separating him from her or the bus drivers into keeping him away from her. It was effective for a little while. Eventually she had to leave.

There is a scene in The Shape of Water where Sally Hawkins is threatened sexually by her boss. It is more harrowing when you remember that the highest rates of sexual assault are for disabled people who cannot communicate their attacks.

At Virginia’s sheltered workshop, she was paid what is known as a “subminimum wage.” It is still legal to pay disabled people for piecework, or pennies for the hour. On average, Virginia’s checks were about $6 a week, $9 on a good one. She was still devastated by having had to leave her job.

In an argument with my mother over Virginia, she said it did not hurt her to see them treat Virginia this way. Virginia’s subminimum wage, the hours taken away from my mother’s own job, her own interests, her own life, also did not affect her. She did not understand why it impacts me as another disabled woman. Virginia and I are different. I try to explain that...we deserve equal rights. She disagrees: I deserve a fair wage. Virginia does not.

This is where I understand that if we are in The Shape of Water (which we are not and never would be), Virginia is always the one behind glass, prodded, unable to be heard. In our story, she always bears more risk.

Dave Jamieson at HuffPost:

The Labor Department said Tuesday that it would be phasing out a long-running and controversial program that allows certain employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage. The new rule eliminating the program follows years of pressure from disability rights groups and is meant to deliver on a campaign pledge from President Joe Biden. But its future is uncertain due to likely legal challenges as well as the incoming Trump administration.

Kristin Garcia, deputy administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, said the reform is consistent with the principle that workers deserve fair pay for a hard day’s work. “For too long, workers with disabilities have been left out of that promise,” Garcia told reporters Tuesday. The federal government’s endorsement of a sub-minimum wage for workers with disabilities dates to 1938, when Congress created a wage floor under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Eligible employers receive certificates from the Labor Department allowing them to pay well below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. A 2023 study from the Government Accountability Office found that around 120,000 workers were employed under what are known as 14(c) certificates, so named for the section of the law that allows them. Half of those workers were earning less than $3.50 per hour.

Many of the workers are employed in community rehabilitation programs and nonprofits, including Goodwill, and the vast majority have an intellectual or developmental disability. It’s common for these workers to earn wages on “piece rate,” so that they’re paid according to how many tasks they complete in a given time rather than a standard hourly rate. While backers of the program argue many employees will lose their jobs without it, critics say it’s an antiquated practice that discriminates against an entire workforce and furthers income inequality.

[...] Under the proposed rule, the government would no longer issue new certificates allowing a sub-minimum wage for workers with disabilities. Existing certificates would be phased out three years after the rule goes into effect. Workers employed under current certificates could remain in their jobs, but the employer would have to pay them at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

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The Youth Minimum Wage: For employees under the age of 20, it is legal to pay them anything over $4.25 for the first 90 days of employment. That means they can pay you $4.26 for 3 months, legally. 

Disabled Sub-minimum Wage: If you have disabilities including but not limited to blindness, mental illness, developmental disabilities, cerebral palsy, alcoholism or drug addiction, it is legal to pay well below minimum wage so long as it can be proven that your disability impacts your productivity as compared to abled workers. One horrific report found that in an entire pay period, one woman only made $0.38. 

Legally anyone who is disabled can be paid less than $0.10 an hour. There are some jobs that will actually pay a disabled person the minimum wage, I have had two jobs where I was paid minimum wage but both jobs I was forced out of due to accessibility issues which is another huge problem with disabled people and employment. The problem comes from the fact that it is legal for companies to pay disabled people FAR less than minimum wage. Goodwill is infamous among the disability community for it.

Goodwill is whats called a sheltered work environment (or something similar, I have trouble getting correct wording due to my disability). They utilize whats called The Fair Labor Standards Act. This allows them to pay disabled employees (any disabled person who works for them, wheelchair users, amputees, intellectually disabled, etc) LESS than minimum wage because they (supposedly) base it on how well a disabled person can do their job.

The idea is rooted in ableism. Its the idea that a disabled person's work ability won't be as good as an abled employee AND the idea that disabled people only want the satisfaction of merely having a job.

Not all employers do this but the fact that it's even legal is disgusting. The people who are taken most advantage of this are intellectually disabled folk but anyone with any disability is still allowed to be paid less than minimum wage.