The employment-population ratio for workers with disabilities is at an all time high. 22.5 percent of people with disabilities are employed in the US (bls.gov), however, they typically do not get paid an equal wage to those of their non-disabled counterparts.
The federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 an hour—an income level that doesn’t even support the average American when you take utilities, insurance, and other factors that chip paychecks away into consideration. However, while $7.25 remains the federally mandated minimum wage, as minimum wages vary from state to state based on living wages (statistica.com), some Americans are being paid even less: a subminimum wage.
In 37 states, employers can pay certain employees less due to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938. While it brought benefits such as overtime pay and excessive child labor, Section 14(c) gives companies the freedom to discriminate against disabled workers under federal law in the form of wage deductions, as long as they have a certificate from the Wage and Hour Division (dol.gov). These are known as Commensurate Wages. The disabilities can range from cognitive to mobility struggles, as well as seeing and hearing.
To decide how much these workers earn, employers must complete an analysis of their work to determine the extent to which their disability affects their tasks in the workplace in the form of quality and how it compares to neurotypical employees. For example, if a worker without a disability is being paid $7.25 an hour, and an employee with a disability is believed to be 50% as productive, they would be paid $3.63 an hour.
Those employed under 14(c) certificates cannot financially support themselves. Affording housing, food, transportation, and insurance is out of the question for this level of income. Fewer than one-third of adults with disabilities receive financial support from social security programs (kff.org). Around 14% of adults over the age of 18 with a disability live alone (rhrc.umn.edu), and most are unable to remain financially stable on commensurate wages.
However, leaders in Congress have been making efforts to cause this act to subside. “On July 25th, 2023, Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced the Raise the Wage Act (RTWA) of 2023 [MB9] [MB10] in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. If passed, this bill would not only raise the federal minimum wage to $17 over the course of five years – it would also gradually eliminate the subminimum wage for disabled workers by 2028” (nationalpartnership.org).
