Some people with disabilities are paid below the minimum wage. This bill would put an end to it.

A group of lawmakers in Congress is fighting to end the minimum wage for people with disabilities, a policy that is hurting people 122,000 people national.

Minimum wage for US employees intervals $7.25 to $15 an hour, and many activists continually struggle to raise that amount. But currently, some employers can pay people with disabilities well below the state minimum, with many of them earning less than $3.50 per houraccording to a report by the US Government Accountability Office.

On February 27, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives reintroduced Transformation to the integrated labor competition lawwhich would put an end to this practice.

“Paying workers below the minimum wage is unacceptable. Everyone deserves to be paid a fair wage, and Americans with disabilities are no exception,” said Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who led the legislative effort, in a statement. “This common sense, bipartisan legislation would lift up people with disabilities by raising wages and creating competitive jobs in jobs that employ workers with and without disabilities.”

Under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers may request a certificate from the Department of Labor allowing them to pay disabled employees below the minimum wage. GAO reports that 1,567 employers did just that in 2019.

The sub-minimum wages of employees with disabilities are determined by time tests that their employers administer every six months to compare their work efficiency and productivity to that of non-disabled employees.

“For employees, there is an extreme amount of stress. They’re tested every six months, and if they don’t meet a certain level, their pay is cut,” said Jewelyn Cosgrove, vice president of the nonprofit Melwood, Washington, DC.

Tawana Freeman, a 52-year-old woman with disabilities, started working in Melwood in 1996, when the nonprofit had a 14(c) certificate and paid sub-minimum wages to disabled employees. At the time, a single mother of three, she remembers feeling enormous pressure to perform well in time trials every six months to avoid falling wages.

“I said, ‘No, I can’t fail. I have to prove myself, I have to tell them I’m worth it,’” Freeman told HuffPost.

Freeman said her paycheck has been cut several times, forcing her to rely on her family and friends to help pay the bills. She still works at Melwood, but no longer has to endure the ordeal of sub-minimum wages and hours, as the nonprofit voluntarily relinquished its Section 14(c) certification in 2014 after realizing its negative effect on employees with disabilities.

“Oh, I feel great. I don’t have to ask anyone for money. I know what I’m getting … so now I’m good,” Freeman said. “We feel normal, like we are normal workers [who] you go to work and you get paid for our eight hours and that’s great.

Melwood President and CEO Larysa Kautz noted that for a long time, society viewed people with disabilities as untrainable and unemployable. People with disabilities, especially those with intellectual, cognitive, and developmental disabilities, were viewed as inferior because of the appearance of their disabilities, and subminimum wages were used as an incentive for employers to hire them.

“[Section 14(c) is] an antiquated law that was passed in the 1930s because, frankly, no one at the time believed that a disabled person could do a ‘real job,’” Kautz told HuffPost.

“It was well-intentioned. It was done because we, as a society, believed that no one would ever hire someone with a significant disability – or any disability, really, because it doesn’t have to be significant – unless there was an incentive for that employer to this thing. ” , continued.

Supporters of today’s minimum wages believe they are the only option for people with disabilities and that without them, those workers will lose their source of income, Kautz said.

But the landscape has changed dramatically in the 21st century, with more job opportunities and alternatives available than in 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed.

In recent decades, the United States has seen dramatic improvements in assistive technology and other tools that can help people with disabilities in the workplace. And in 2014, Workforce Innovation Opportunities Act assured that Jobseekers, including people with disabilities, have access to employment services, training and support that help them succeed in the labor market.

“Being allowed to continue to rely on some of these old laws instead of moving into the future and where we are today does not serve people with disabilities well. It gives another reason to discriminate against them and put them aside and not try to find solutions and break down barriers,” Kautz said.

There have been attempts to eliminate the minimum wage for people with disabilities at the federal level. In the July 2022THE Ability One federal program, which is one of the largest sources of employment for people with disabilities, REMOVED using a salary of less than 14(c) under the program.

Other than Transformation into the Integrated Law of Competitive Employmentwhich was initially introduced in 2021, would have the broadest impact of any effort to end sub-minimum wages.

Eliminating the discriminatory practice would help people with disabilities achieve financial independence and be more involved in their communities as they transition to competitive jobs and integrated work environments.

The legislation currently has bipartisan supportapproval Sens. Casey and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). Despite the bipartisan coalition for this bill, Cosgrove said she is skeptical the legislation will pass in the current political environment.

And if it doesn’t pass, it will be up to individual states to waive 14(c) certificates.

Some states have begun to move away from the 85-year-old law. Second Association of people who support employment in the first place13 US states have gave a law elimination of sub-minimum disability wagesd persons, with legislation in progress in virgin and other states.

The GAO also found that between 2010 and 2019, the number of employers authorized under Section 14(c) to pay sub-minimum wages fell by half. With a number of states phasing out 14(c) certificates amid this growing trend, Cosgrove believes the sub-minimum wage policy will disappear within the next five years.

“I think this policy will go away, and I think at some point the political calculation that it’s a problem to get rid of it will also go away,” Cosgrove said.