Section 14 (c) - Modern Day Caste System
Modern Day Caste System
Today, “persons, whose earning or productive capacity is impaired by age, physical or mental deficiency, or injury” [1], face extreme wage discrimination. In more extreme cases, handicapped workers may earn a wage as low as $ 0.25 per hour in locations where local minimum wage surpasses the federal floor [2]. Franklin D Roosevelt signed these provisions when employers successfully lobbied to ease the minimum wage rate for handicapped workers during the Great Depression. As written by Fair Labors Standards Act, Section 14 (c) established employer’s ability to pay handicapped workers a special minimum wage as determined by the Secretary of Labor. These provisions also mentions the ability for employers to further isolate handicapped workers into work activities centers, also known as sheltered workshops [3]. Later, 1986 amendment further removed wage floor with the creation of a commensurate wage [4].
Many special minimum wage employers falsify performance reviews. To quality for special minimum wage, employers must certify with a Regional Office of the Wage and Hour Division [5]. When accepted, the employer must stipend the disabled worker relative to an non-disabled experienced worker [6]. However, employers seem to disparage their worker’s ability in order to trigger provisions to lower the wage floor [7]. International Encyclopedia of Rehabilitation reports “from a 2008 survey that U.S. citizens working in sheltered workshops earned about $101/month and worked 74 hours a month” [8]. As given by the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, disabled workers lost a potential $435.50 a month at a prevailing wage of $7.25 per hour.
Section 14 (c) fails to integrate disabled into the workforce. Instead of integrated environments, special minimum wage workers work in segregated facilities known as work activities center. Many of them would spend years to decades training in these centers [10] Furthermore, these facilities employ 95% of all special minimum wage workers and are subsidized by government contracts such as the Javitz-Wagner-O’Day Act [11]. Despite their training, only 5% of workers leave these centers to earn either special or at least minimum wage [12].
These workshops train workers in skills which are somewhat irrelevant in the competitive world. Most work centers provide assembly line jobs to Section 14 (c) workers [13]. For example, UCO, tier 1 Honda supplier, ordered Mr. Denoewer to pack owner’s manuals into new cars on the isolated workstation named “the table” [14]. Section 14 (c) workers perform a wide variety of task such as assembling, cleaning, packing, sorting, etc but Samuel Bagenstos, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School, argues “Section 14 (c) proposition that people with disabilities should have to provide their ability and inclination to work in whatever make - work jobs the workshops create before moving into the world of competitive employment” [15].
Owners and managers pocket the difference. Snopes investigated Goodwill’s CEO, Jim Gibbons, made over $700,000 [16], a number endorsed by Goodwill [17]. Even if Section 14 (c) workers work in more integrated environments, some certificate holders exploit a common scheme to classify workers as employee of a sheltered workshop. Hawaii legislators documented “entities holding these special wage certificates can act as subcontractors for any other business” [18]. These workers toll away working the same job and under the same roof as non exempt workers while being classified as a subcontractor.
The Supreme Court reinstated individual’s right to integrate into society. The Supreme Court elaborated unjust insitualiationzation is prohibited by ADA [19] in the Olmstead v L. C. Many state governments pinned this decision as their justification to ban sheltered workshops [20]. For example in New York, governor, Cuomo established Most Integrated Setting Coordinating Council to administer the Olmstead ruling [21]. MISCC celebrates their ability to reduce long term stay by 10% [22]. In addition, they celebrated client’s ability to pursue their own dream such as Jeremy’s passion to become a mechanic [23]. These findings are not unique. Robert Evert Cimera, Educational Foundations and Special Services, measured noticeably better outcomes for supported employees than sheltered environments [24].
Links
Law
[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/214 (29 U.S. Code § 214 (c) (1))
[3] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/214 (29 U.S. Code § 214 (c) (4))
[4] https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2017-title29-vol3/xml/CFR-2017-title29-vol3-part525.xml 29 U.S. Code § 525.5
[5] https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2017-title29-vol3/xml/CFR-2017-title29-vol3-part525.xml 29 U.S. Code § 525.7 (a)
[6] https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2017-title29-vol3/xml/CFR-2017-title29-vol3-part525.xml 29 U.S. Code § 525.10 (a)
[11] https://www.abilityone.gov/laws,_regulations_and_policy/jwod.html Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act
[19] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/12101 42 U.S. Code §§12101(a)(2)
News
[2] https://www.npr.org/2014/04/23/305854409/subminimum-wages-for-the-disabled-godsend-or-exploitation Subminimum Wages For The Disabled: Godsend Or Exploitation?
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/curtis-l-decker-jd/people-with-disabilities-_3_b_8303198.html
http://publicsource.org/vermont-closed-workshops-for-people-with-disabilities-what-happened-next/
Department of Labor
[7] https://web.archive.org/web/20161221063156/http://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/14c/20b.htm - Most Common Violations Found During an Investigation Under FLSA Section 14(c) [8] https://www.dol.gov/odep/pdf/ChapterTwo14cProgram.pdf Section 14(c) Subminimum Wage Certificate Program - Page 5
http://webapps.dol.gov/dolfaq/go-dol-faq.asp?faqid=67
https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/14c/
https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs39.pdf
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20180423
https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/statutes/FairLaborStandAct.pdf
https://www.dol.gov/whd/workerswithdisabilities/certificates.htm
https://www.dol.gov/odep/documents/employerperspectives.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20180712205307/https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/flsa1938
http://www.dol.gov/whd/media/press/whdpressVB3.asp?pressdoc=Northeast/20140130.xml
Government Accountability Office
[9] https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-01-886 Centers Offer Employment and Support Services to Workers With Disabilities, But Labor Should Improve Oversight - Page 9
[10] https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-01-886 - Centers Offer Employment and Support Services to Workers With Disabilities, But Labor Should Improve Oversight - Page 4
[12] https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-01-886 - Centers Offer Employment and Support Services to Workers With Disabilities, But Labor Should Improve Oversight - Page 4
[13] https://www.gao.gov/assets/240/232264.pdf - SPECIAL MINIMUM WAGE PROGRAM - Centers Offer Employment and Support Services to Workers With Disabilities, But Labor Should Improve Oversight - Page 11
Congress
https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/3086
Robert Evert Cimera Educational Foundations and Special Services, Kent State University
[24] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260782022_Supported_versus_sheltered_employment_Cumulative_costs_hours_worked_and_wages_earned - Supported versus sheltered employment: Cumulative costs, hours worked, and wages earned
Labor Economics Domestic Social Policy Division, William G. Whittaker
https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1211&context=key_workplace
National Federation of the Blind, Samuel R. Bagenstos
[15] https://web.archive.org/web/20170225102437/http://www.ct.gov/dds/lib/dds/employment/the_case_against_14c_sub_minumum_wage_program.pdf - The Case Against the Section 14(c) Subminimum Wage Program - Prepared for the National Federation of the Blind - Page 10
National Council of Disability
https://ncd.gov/sites/default/files/NCD_Sub%20Wage.pdf
https://www.ncd.gov/publications/2012/August232012/sites
https://ncd.gov/publications/2014/01302014/
Elizabeth Warren
https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/831/text
http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:29%20section:214%20edition:prelim)
USBLN
Melia Preedy, J.D. Candidate, Seattle University School of Law, 2014
https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2231&context=sulr
State of Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations
[18] http://labor.hawaii.gov/wsd/files/2016/02/HAR-12-20-61-to-80_3-Handicapped-Clients-in-Sheltered-Workshops-Internet-rev01-15.pdf Wage Standards Division - Subchapter 3 Employment of Handicapped Clients in Sheltered Workshops - Page 18
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2018/testimony/HB1627_HD1_TESTIMONY_FIN_02-22-18_.PDF
Iowa Department of Human Rights
Lawsuits
[14] https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20180418f70 DENOEWER v. UCO INDUSTRIES, INC.
[15] https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/98-536.ZS.html OLMSTEAD V. L. C. (98-536) 527 U.S. 581 (1999)
https://nfb.org/sheltered-workshop-and-honda-america-manufacturing-sued-disability-discrimination
https://droregon.org/lane-v-kitzhaber/
Confidential Shredder - Australia
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2015/09/17/4314814.htm
Seattle
http://council.seattle.gov/2018/04/02/council-votes-to-eliminate-subminimum-wage/
Oregon
https://www.ada.gov/olmstead/documents/lane_final_rpt_2016.pdf https://www.oregon.gov/DHS/EMPLOYMENT/EMPLOYMENT-FIRST/DataReports/Lane%20v%20Brown%20Semi-Annual%20Report%202-28-17.pdf
New York
[20] https://www.ny.gov/programs/olmstead-community-integration-every-new-yorker Olmstead Community Integration [21] https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-84-establishing-olmstead-plan-development-and-implementation-cabinet No. 84: Establishing the Olmstead Plan Development and Implementation Cabinet
[22] https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/Presentation%20Update%20on%20Olmstead%20Report%20%28Nursing%20Homes%29%2011-2-16%20MISCC%20.pdf Update on Olmstead Report (Nursing Homes) [23] https://www.ny.gov/olmstead-community-integration-every-new-yorker/most-integrated-setting-coordinating-council-miscc#success-stories The Most Integrated Setting Coordinating Council (MISCC) - Success Stories
California
https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/ShelteredWorkshopsandSpecialMinimumWageWorkers.html https://scdd.ca.gov/sw_policy/
http://www.inclusionbc.org/sites/default/files/SubminimumWage_0.pdf
Snopes
[16] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/executive-salaries-charities/ Executive Salaries Charities
Sheltered Workshops
a. Goodwill
[17] https://web.archive.org/web/20170402142124/http://www.goodwill.org/uncategorized/think-before-you-donate-and-get-the-facts-about-email-rumors/ Think Before You Donate – and Get the Facts about Online Rumors!
http://www.goodwill.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Goodwill-14c-Fair-Wages-Position-Paper.pdf
b. Melwood
https://www.melwood.org/files/dmfile/HB%20420%20SB%20417%20White%20Paper%20FINAL%20no%20appendix.pdf
c. Florida ARF
https://www.respectofflorida.org/assets/pdf/AnnualReports/14c_Paper_Approved_September2013.pdf