When the Fair Labor Standards Act was established in 1938, the United States was in the midst of the worst economic and labor crisis in the nation’s history. Child labor was rampant, workers’ hours frequently reached 100 hours each week, and employers paid meager wages to workers.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt put a stop to this labor rights nightmare by signing this landmark law, which established the standard 40 hour workweek, banned child labor, and set a minimum hourly wage for all workers.
At least, that’s the story we’re told about the FLSA.
In reality, the FLSA has a legal clause that excludes one group of people from the protections of a fair minimum wage: workers with disabilities. And that Depression-era provision of the FLSA still exists to this day.
That means that in 2018, employers can pay workers with disabilities as little as pennies a day, and it’s perfectly legal.
Although the practice has come under fire in recent years, many employers continue to pay out subminimum wages through sheltered workshops. These are non-profit, state, or local government institutions that claim to employ people with disabilities to prepare them for work in the mainstream economy, but many disability advocates argue that these so-called work training programs often task workers with disabilities with unskilled, unfulfilling menial labor that fails to prepare them for the competitive workforce.
And, aside from the occasional headlines about politicians such as Senator Elizabeth Warren championing the end of subminimum wages for workers with disabilities, we hear very little about this controversial practice.
So, what exactly is the clause that allows subminimum wage work, and how does this provision impact workers with disabilities in 2018?
In this article, you will learn more about the history of sheltered workshops and subminimum wages for workers with disabilities and what could be done to help workers with disabilities earn fair wages through meaningful work in an integrated workforce.
Vermont: A Model for Integrated Employment and The End of Sheltered Workshops
In 2002 Vermont closed its last sheltered workshop. This was a major milestone for the state, but it didn’t happen overnight — the process leading up that moment actually began decades earlier.
In the 1980s the University of Vermont received a grant to create programs for integrated employment in partnership with state disability agencies, according to PublicSource. It was at that point that state policymakers decided to take steps to gradually phase out sheltered workshops.
They began by barring new people from entering sheltered workshops, and slowly cutting funding to these workshops. This ensured that younger generations of people with disabilities were not automatically funneled into sheltered workshops from high school, while protecting people who have been working in sheltered workshops for years.
Although this move initially garnered criticism from parents of people with disabilities, who worried that their children wouldn’t be able to find work outside of sheltered workshops, families became supportive of integration once they saw the benefits in hard numbers: 80 percent of workers with disabilities who worked at the last sheltered workshop in the state found integrated work within three years, according to a report by the Star Tribune.
The integrated employment rate of people with disabilities in Vermont is now 38 percent, twice the national average, according to a 2013 report by the University of Massachusetts Boston, Institute for Community Inclusion. Vermont also has the highest rate of community job placements for clients with developmental disabilities, at nearly six times the national average.
The number of workers with disabilities in Vermont who are employed in integrated workplaces continues to climb each year, as more businesses are educated on the value of workers with disabilities. This has created a new landscape full of potential for younger generations of people with disabilities.
“Young parents with high school students ready to graduate don't even know what a sheltered workshop is,” Jennie Masterson, a supported employment services coordinator at the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Services Division, explained to PublicSource. “It’s just typical now that you graduate and you go to college or you go to work.”
Other Legislative Efforts to End Subminimum Wages & Sheltered Workshops
Vermont is not the only place making strides to end subminimum wages and sheltered workshops. Efforts have been made to end the practice of subminimum wages, both on a federal and state level.
In fact, New Hampshire was the first state to repeal the law allowing employers to pay workers with disabilities at a subminimum wage. Governor Maggie Hassan signed a bill into law that prohibits employers from employing individuals with disabilities at an hourly rate lower than the federal minimum wage on May 7, 2015, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.
Maryland followed suit in 2016, signing a bill to repeal subminimum wages as well.
“By passing HB 420 and SB 417, we have upheld Maryland’s highest ideals,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jeff Waldstreicher. “Marylanders are a compassionate, caring people. We believe in the dignity of every individual, in equal rights.”
And in 2017, Seattle officials announced a proposal to end subminimum wages for people with disabilities in the city, stating that subminimum wages go against the spirit of the city’s historic $15 minimum wage law.
“Subminimum wages are an outdated practice that inherently devalue the employee receiving them,” Councilmember Herbold said in a [press statement]. “With so few subminimum wage certificates issued to employers, now is the perfect time to end this practice and lead the region in ending this discriminatory policy.”
On the federal level, the Obama administration raised the minimum wage for federal contractor workers from $7.25 to $10.10 in 2014 — including workers with disabilities under federal contracts. However, this ruling impacts only a small number of workers with disabilities making subminimum wages, advocates point out.
"We hope… going forward to convince Congress to repeal Section 14 (c) for all disabled workers,” Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, said in a press statement. “Equal rights should apply to everyone — we took a significant step forward on that road today."
Looking to a Future of Integration
There are inevitable growing pains that come with changing any long standing system of employment, and disability advocates must continue to challenge attitudes held by society, such as the belief that some people are just “too disabled” to do meaningful work.
But fair wages and integration in the workplace, many argue, won’t just benefit workers with disabilities — it’ll benefit society as a whole.
“Are we going to have an economy where we value variance in our working class, an economy where only a certain type of human is allowed to enter the workforce?” asks Thomas.
“Being able to integrate workers with disabilities into the workplace is going to help society in that it’s going to allow people to experience a connection with someone who’s different from them, who they may not otherwise have connected with,” said Thomas. “We need to continue to be open minded about what all people can contribute to the workforce, and I think the less we focus on numeric productivity, the more we gain from a human standpoint.”
She adds, “Assuming the worst of people deprives us of the best.”