Low Pay Rates for PWD: Exploitation or Opportunity?

via The Columbus Dispatch(5.22.11):

Far below minimum wage

Some say low pay for the disabled is immoral; others view the federal law as a godsend

By Jill Riepenhoff

Thousands of adults with Down syndrome, autism and other developmental disabilities work in Ohio at jobs that pay less money than a teen-age baby sitter earns.

Some clean hotel rooms for 40 cents an hour. Others sew table linens for 79 cents an hour. Some assemble automotive parts for $2.15 an hour or answer telephones for $3.75 an hour.

The majority don't earn half of the state minimum wage of $7.40.

A little-known provision in the 73-year-old federal wage law allows employers to pay less than minimum wage if adults have disabilities that limit their productivity.

The Fair Labor Standards Act once dictated how little was too little to pay a worker. But today, there is no floor, clearing the way for some to earn as little as a penny an hour.

The wage issue has divided the very community that seeks the highest quality of life for people with disabilities. The difference of opinion is stark:

"It's immoral," said Curtis L. Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network.

"This has been a godsend," said Ted Williams, whose autistic son earns a low wage at his job in Columbus...

>>>For the Full Article

With critics saying low wages show that people with disabilities are being exploited and supporters saying the pay rates reflect opportunities, where do you stand? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Comments

[Marlene Chait]

I'm in the same boat... Since earning my doctorate I have been unsuccessful securing a position utilizing over 25 years of professional, educational and personal experience. Finally, I have secured an interview in a couple of weeks with a large federal agency, only to learn that it is for a clerk or human resource assistant position. I need a job and yet..

[MH Baird]

My deceased husband was a licensed professional counselor and vocational evaluator in the type of supported employment setting you speak of. He
was my advocate and that for many others
as a person with a disability as well.

His clients were not being exploited - they
were given actual CHOICE, OPEN DOORS and opportunity that they would never gain
without the advocacy and service support; and they were also being supported emotionally and having intersocial
interaction in which the love, care and
support I wish I was given in the employment
world I have sought entry into.

This is an essential part of the CHOICES
persons with disabilities should have; especially those with such severe brain injury or severe mental illness that they would NOT be hired without this type of service and CARE.

Thank you for the chance to input on this.

[Bonnie O'Day]

Thank you for your coverage of this important issue. However, my comment has to do with the way in which this story is presented in your newsletter. I had to go to no less than four links to actually get the full story. And each time, the story started at the beginning, meaning that I HAD to read the first paragraph or two several times. . This is extremely unfriendly to blind screen reader users, who must negotiate complex layouts and web pages with each link.
I know you guys can do better.
How about providing one link to the story, and ensuring that your final source is presented in an accessible format?
Thank you.

[Paul Galonsky]

Integrated Employment means to me that individuals regardless of their abilities can have meaningful equal opportunity to become aware of, trained, employed, and retained in a work environment that is open to all people with all abilities and qualifications. Integrated Employment is a notion to me that all people, including those with disability, can find regular jobs in their community, and that they can earn a decent wage with benefits such as health insurance, a retirement plan, and earned leave time. When I think about what Integrated Employment means to me, I also think about how people with disability have the potential to bring great happiness and value to their lives through full participation in the workforce, as well as tremendous value to employers and to the community in which they live. Integrated Employment also means to me that all individuals regardless of their ability will have opportunities to interact with people from their communities within the workplace, which provides for interpersonal experiences that perhaps could never be realized without the opportunity to work in such a setting. In essence, Integrated Employment means to me that people with disability can ultimately have the chance towards greater independence and live a better quality of life.

However, Integrated Employment also means to me that the American business sector and society as a whole must come to recognize the importance and value of inclusion of people with disability fully into the workforce and workplace, and how that contributes to a better quality of life for all. Unfortunately, neither the American business sector nor society in general has attitudinally evolved to this point. In order for Integrated Employment for people with disability to be fully realized, the American business sector and society on the whole must begin now to make meaningful attitudinal changes. Changes such as making it a priority to support people with disability in career development, which includes transitioning from school to work for young adults with disability; access to career choices for people with disability regardless of their current stage in life; identifying individual work related ability, strengths, and qualifications; access to job coaches; the relationship between earning a decent wage and independent living; the relationship between participation in the workforce and affordable housing; and a work environment that is accessible, universally designed, and provides tools such as assistive technology so all employees can be productive and contribute in the workplace. Unfortunately, these barriers currently exist. As a result, more advocacy and education about the benefits of Integrated Employment still needs to occur.

When I think of Integrated Employment and think about my own experiences as an employee, I know that even with all my contributions throughout my work life, there were still opportunities for me to learn, grow, and do better. Perhaps like some people in the work settings that I have been a part of, I have been faced with challenges that were not always easy for me to overcome, and even sometimes those challenges took longer for me than the average employee to accomplish. However, those challenges and my ability to overcome them by no means prevented me from being able to fully participate in an integrated workplace with people who have different individual work related strengths and qualifications. So, why then are people with disability not afforded the same opportunity such as I am, or anyone else who currently works in an integrated work setting? Furthermore, why then are many people with disability not recognized for their individual strengths and qualifications while afforded the right to work in an environment with people who perhaps do not have a disability? These questions fuel my passion to contribute and advocate to correct those misperceptions that both the American business sector and society as a whole have added to the burden for people with disability in all aspects of life for far too long. An integral part of my passion definitively includes advocating for full participation of people with disability into the workplace.

Without the continual push from concerned citizens and groups to change present societal attitudes and practices that prevent people with disability from realizing their unique potential and participation in the general workforce, we as a group ultimately knowing or not knowing discourage the growth and integration of people with disability fully into society. At the same time, we also discourage our growth as a race, world, country, state, and community as a whole. To me, this is unjust, unfair, unbalanced, and blatant discrimination. We must not continue to allow ourselves to stay trapped into thinking that people with disability do not have the right to govern their lives, which includes their right to meaningful opportunity to full participation in the workforce and workplace. Furthermore, conceptualizing disability as part of the human experience that all individuals will face in some point in time should remind us all that the time is now to make perception and environmental changes towards inclusiveness and accessibility in our world. The workplace is no exception.

How our society conceptualizes disability and its relationship to participating in the workforce gets to the root of how disability has been defined probably throughout the world as a weakness, crippling, an affliction, a deficit, someone deserving of, someone of victim status, or an inability to take care of one’s self. However, it is precisely these discriminating types of conceptions that have reinforced attitudinal and environmental barriers, which in turn prevent people with disability from the meaningful equal opportunity to employment in integrated work settings.

Having stated the aforementioned in regard to Integrated Employment, a goal of mine has always been for me to do what I can do to support people who have been discriminated against simply for who they are. I recognized a long time ago that it is not the individual that is the barrier; rather it is the environment in which the individual lives that prevents growth, independence, and quality of life. As such, I have felt that it is my responsibility to support equity for all people, and particularly for those with disability.

In closing, when I think about what Integrated Employment means to me, I envision that someday the American business sector and society as a whole will expand the way it thinks about the workplace and workforce in relationship to disability, independence, and quality of life for all in our world. These concepts as they relate to disability are still disconnected in the sense that people who have not experienced disability may not be fully be aware of the true capabilities, qualifications, and value that people with disability can bring to, and in, an Integrated Employment setting. With ongoing advocacy, support, and the will to create and frame the issue of disability on the whole as a product of our environment and not the product of the individual, we will only then truly support the idea of growth, independence, fulfillment, Integrated Employment, and quality of life for all. With this ongoing advocacy and support, people with all abilities will have meaningful equal opportunity to participate in a workforce and workplace that is capable of including all people with all qualifications and abilities.

[Bernadette Moran]

I can see both sides of the issue. People with disabilites can be exploited but mostly, those with more involved physical disabilites and those with intellectual disabilities cannot find work or meaningful day activity because they cannot compete with the production level of the non disabled person. I welcome a reduced minimum wage so my child will be able to go into the work world and find the reward of work, the friendship of co workers and the self esteem she so deserves.