USA: Proposal to end subminimum wages, public comments requested

[ahimsa]

For folks in the USA there is a proposal to remove the exception that allows "productivity-based subminimum wages to workers with disabilities."

The current law allows certain charities, e.g., Goodwill, to hire disabled workers and pay them very low wages.

Title: Employment of Workers With Disabilities Under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act

SUMMARY:

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA or Act) authorizes the Secretary of Labor to issue certificates allowing employers to pay productivity-based subminimum wages to workers with disabilities, but only where such certificates are necessary to prevent the curtailment of opportunities for employment. Employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities have vastly expanded in recent decades, in part due to significant legal and policy developments. Based on that evidence, the Department has tentatively concluded that subminimum wages are no longer necessary to prevent the curtailment of employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities and thus proposes to phase out the issuance of section 14(c) certificates.
DATES:

Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on this notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on or before January 17, 2025.

If you support this change you can leave a comment here:
https://www.federalregister.gov/doc...r-section-14c-of-the-fair-labor-standards-act

The comment period ends in 8 days (January 17, 2025)

 

[bicentennial]

...proposal to remove the exception that allows "productivity-based subminimum wages to workers with disabilities." The current law allows certain charities, e.g., Goodwill, to hire disabled workers and pay them very low wages

How can a charity be run by people who can make it function as a business enough to pay themselves, but cannot make it function as a busines to create viable, fairly paid, employment for disabled Members, or at least pay them the mimum wage.

It does not sound like a charitable priority to badly underpay disabled people working for the charity, might as well just give them inflated expenses for volunteeirng, or hire someone who knews how to make a business work but wants to make it work for disabled people too

 

[ahimsa]

How can a charity be run by people who can make it function as a business enough to pay themselves, but cannot make it function as a business to create viable, fairly paid, employment for disabled Members, or at least pay them the minimum wage.
...

You don't need to convince me! Maybe you can copy/paste your post as a public comment - the more comments they get, the better!

This is a really old law (from the 1930s) that needs to be eliminated.

Disability advocates in the USA have been trying to change this law for a long time. Quite a few states have already banned the practice.

A recent study shows that banning sub-minimum wages has little downside:

https://www.disabilityscoop.com/202...inimum-wage-states-see-workforce-gains/31228/