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Hillary wants to end loophole that allows below-minimum wage salaries to the disabled
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/31/11337758/clinton-disability-minimum-wageThis Monday, Hillary Clinton proposed something no major presidential candidate ever had before: paying all disabled workers the minimum wage.
At a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin, Clinton was asked by Nikki Vander Meulen, an autistic attorney, about her position on Section 14(c), a loophole in the federal minimum wage that allows employers to gain an exemption from the minimum for workers with disabilities. Most Americans don’t even know this loophole exists, but it has been leaving disabled workers to toil in poverty for decades, and disability rights advocates like myself have made repeal a major priority for years.
Clinton pledged to close it:
"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. 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 enables people to gain a degree of independence as far as they can go. So I want us to take a hard look at raising the minimum wage and ending the tiered minimum wages, whether it's for people with disabilities or the tipped wage. … When people talk about raising the minimum wage, they don't always talk about the legal loopholes that we have in it and I want to get rid of those and I want to get rid of that for people with disabilities too."
. . .Historically, politicians have limited their forays into disability policy, usually not seeing the disability community as a sufficiently organized voting bloc to be worth making promises to. When they did so, it would usually be on the areas of greatest consensus between the different wings of the disability movement, like increased service funding across the board. Section 14(c) doesn’t fall into that category. The sheltered workshop industry, led by groups like Goodwill Industries, are still quite vocal in their opposition to ending 14(c). Hillary Clinton’s remarks on sub-minimum wage are notable because she’s taking a bold position on a topic that has a history of controversy. One implication is that the tide may be turning on 14(c) and sheltered workshops. As advocates gain ground, many provider associations have come to the table and begun working constructively on how to responsibly phase out sub-minimum wage and workshops, instead of trying to preserve the status quo.
. . .
Clinton’s remarks are promising for advocates like me who work to promote integrated employment — but they may also signal a realignment in disability politics, with progressive advocates having much greater influence than ever before. As Clinton's questioner Vander Meulen — who helped draft Wisconsin’s law prohibiting the inappropriate use of restraint on schoolchildren and maintains a private practice in Madison — explained, "Hillary Clinton's answer to my question was exactly the answer I had hoped to hear. Any and all Presidential candidates need to understand that the issue of sub-minimum wage is not a political issue but a human rights issue."
At a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin, Clinton was asked by Nikki Vander Meulen, an autistic attorney, about her position on Section 14(c), a loophole in the federal minimum wage that allows employers to gain an exemption from the minimum for workers with disabilities. Most Americans don’t even know this loophole exists, but it has been leaving disabled workers to toil in poverty for decades, and disability rights advocates like myself have made repeal a major priority for years.
Clinton pledged to close it:
"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. 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 enables people to gain a degree of independence as far as they can go. So I want us to take a hard look at raising the minimum wage and ending the tiered minimum wages, whether it's for people with disabilities or the tipped wage. … When people talk about raising the minimum wage, they don't always talk about the legal loopholes that we have in it and I want to get rid of those and I want to get rid of that for people with disabilities too."
. . .Historically, politicians have limited their forays into disability policy, usually not seeing the disability community as a sufficiently organized voting bloc to be worth making promises to. When they did so, it would usually be on the areas of greatest consensus between the different wings of the disability movement, like increased service funding across the board. Section 14(c) doesn’t fall into that category. The sheltered workshop industry, led by groups like Goodwill Industries, are still quite vocal in their opposition to ending 14(c). Hillary Clinton’s remarks on sub-minimum wage are notable because she’s taking a bold position on a topic that has a history of controversy. One implication is that the tide may be turning on 14(c) and sheltered workshops. As advocates gain ground, many provider associations have come to the table and begun working constructively on how to responsibly phase out sub-minimum wage and workshops, instead of trying to preserve the status quo.
. . .
Clinton’s remarks are promising for advocates like me who work to promote integrated employment — but they may also signal a realignment in disability politics, with progressive advocates having much greater influence than ever before. As Clinton's questioner Vander Meulen — who helped draft Wisconsin’s law prohibiting the inappropriate use of restraint on schoolchildren and maintains a private practice in Madison — explained, "Hillary Clinton's answer to my question was exactly the answer I had hoped to hear. Any and all Presidential candidates need to understand that the issue of sub-minimum wage is not a political issue but a human rights issue."
(The author, Ari Ne'eman, is president of the Autism Self-Advocacy Network).
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