There is a powerful movement in the United States to
increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. That's the amount necessary for a
family of four to live just above the national poverty line. But there are
hundreds of thousands of workers in this country who have been left out of this
fight, who will never benefit no matter how much the minimum wage is raised,
and who share one characteristic. They have a disability.
In 1938, President Roosevelt signed into law the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA). It set standards for basic minimum wage rates and
overtime pay for workers. It also created a special exemption that permits
certain employers to pay wages to workers with disabilities that are
significantly lower than the minimum wage. Sometimes as low as just 8 cents an
hour. This subminimum wage was originally created to encourage employers to
hire veterans with physical disabilities struggling to find work in a
manufacturing-centered economy.
However, today that same provision is being used to
financially exploit workers with disabilities. Here's how it often goes.
Unscrupulous employers eager to profit off the cheap labor they can access
because of this provision in the FLSA portray their business as a "job
training" program.
To read more on this story, click here: People with Disabilities Deserve a Minimum Wage
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