----- Original Message -----
From: joe harcz Comcast
To: David Robinson NFB MI
Cc: terry Eagle ; Mark Eagle ; Larry Posont NFBMI Pres. ; Fred Wurtzel ;
Michael Powell ; Derek Moore ; Eleanor Canter ; Darma Canter ; Clark Goodrich
MIADAPT ; Sarah Gravetti MISILC DNM ; Rodney Craig ED MSILC ; Elmer Cerano MPAS
; BRIAN SABOURIN ; Lt. Gov. Brian Calley ; Marlene Malloy MCRS Dir. ; Mark A.
Riccobono NFB Pres.
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2016 10:35 AM
Subject: nfb clinton call to end sub-minimum wage for pwd
And this was precisely what we from NFB, ADAPT and Peer Action alliance were
calling for on our "ADA Celebration". Yet, we were shut down and criminalized
for our words!
Joe Harcz
Clinton Calls For End To Subminimum Wage
by Michelle Diament | March 30, 2016
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said this week that she wants
to see people with disabilities earning at least minimum wage. (Al Seib/Los
Angeles Times/TNS)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said this week that she wants
to see people with disabilities earning at least minimum wage. (Al Seib/Los
Angeles Times/TNS)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is speaking out about
sheltered workshops and the practice of paying people with disabilities less
than
minimum wage.
At a campaign stop this week, Clinton was asked by an attorney with autism
about subminimum wage.
“When it comes to jobs, we’ve got to figure out how we get the minimum wage up
and include people with disabilities in the minimum wage,” Clinton said at
the event in Madison, Wis. “There should not be a tiered wage and right now
there is a tiered wage when it comes to facilities that do provide
opportunities,
but not at a self-sufficient wage that enable people to gain a degree of
independence as far as they can go.”
Under a federal law dating back to the 1930s, employers can obtain special
permission from the U.S. Department of Labor to pay people with disabilities
less than the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.
Despite insistence from some families and advocates that low pay is still
necessary to ensure opportunities for people with disabilities who are unable
to succeed in competitive employment, the practice is falling out of favor.
Last year, New Hampshire became the first state to
ban
subminimum wage. And, a 2014 federal
law
introduced new
limits
on who could be eligible to enter sheltered workshops or other employment
situations paying less than minimum wage.
In her remarks, Clinton referred to the practice as a “loophole.”
Mark Riccobono, president of the National Federation of the Blind, which has
long advocated against subminimum wage, welcomed Clinton’s stand.
“We call upon the other presidential candidates to join with us and over 75
other organizations of people with disabilities in supporting the repeal of
section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and to reject the misconceptions
and low expectations that have for too long kept people with disabilities
from achieving our dreams,” Riccobono said in a statement.
As of this year, the National Federation of the Blind said that Labor
Department statistics show about 3,000 employers nationwide paid over 250,000
people
with disabilities as little as pennies per hour.
Source:
https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2016/03/30/clinton-end-subminimum-wage/22109/
