The Sub-Minimum Wage Loophole

pay people with disabilities less. Employers can apply for a Section fourteen C certification of the Fair Labor Standards Act of ninety eight that grants them the ability to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage. Of This program was established under the Roosevelt administration with arguably good intentions were veterans who developed physical and mental disabilities from combat, came home from abroad, and ruggle to find employment.

There's no limit to how low an employer can pay, so employers could legally pay pennies per hour. There are even places in America where workers earn as little as twenty two cents an hour. It's all perfectly legal. Yeah, twenty two cents an hour. I mean, I don't know about you, but I was shocked when I heard them, because I don't think any human being should be earning less than a gumball machine. Even in Africa, we'd see this and be like, what, that's not even enough for

a couple of coffee a day. And it doesn't even make sense in terms of just language. How can a wage be lower than the minimum wage? Minimum is supposed to be the minimum. It's like when the weather man says it's below freezing out there. Yeo man, once something is frozen, it is frozen. Gotta hear with your weather voodoo. So it's no surprised that there is a movement to

get rid of sub minimum pay. More and more states have been passing laws to close the loophole, and President Biden recently called on Congress to face it out completely. And this seems like one of those things that everyone should agree on, you know, like freeing Britain, or the first VIV was better, or that that the best karaoke song is tlcsal Scrubs. But it's actually more complicated than you might think, because some argue that this wage loophole

is actually a good thing for the disabled. Employers that can pay below seven are typically agencies that work directly with people with disabilities to help them find jobs what's called a sheltered workshop. Here, the disabled get virtually guaranteed employment, but they are not guaranteed minimum way. These job programs are designed to develop skills, create social groups, and instill

a sense of value for their clients. If fourteen C certificates cannot be applied for, some are worried about the unattended consequences. They say, people with profound disabilities may lose a chance to be employed if sevenimum wage goes away. The biggest impact will be on our folks who have severe disabilities, the handicapped. The disabled worker is not going to be given an employment opportunity. Rory Ruland says his uns tried other jobs, but sheltered workshops provide gainful employment

and purpose for it. If we forced him to go out and try to find a minimum wage job, he would be unemployed. Yeah, you see, that's what makes this so complicated. Many of the places that use this loophole are called sheltered workshops, which exist to provide these jobs to disabled people. So there's a legitimate concern that losing this wage loophole might end up hurting the very people they're trying to help, because if they closed down, some disabled people won't be able to get jobs at all.

And having a job is important. I mean, it gives you structure, it gives you a community, gives you a sense of purpose, and an I D. Badge with the worst picture you've ever taken keeps you humble. So you could see how this arrangement, as messed up as it seems, might be better than nothing. At the same time, many advocates say that by providing a safety net for the disabled, these sheltered workshops could actually be doing more harm than good.

Where it's legal to pay people less than the minimum wage, often as little as twenty or thirty cents an hour, raises serious questions about exploitation and whether people are really be giving an opportunity to reach their full potential, and the sheltered workshop system takes people and systematically tells them they're not as good as the rest of the workforce. To me, it's not right that we're getting the pay that we get because we worked hard over there, We

worked very hard. It's not like they're just helping them get any job. They helped them get only the kinds of jobs that this place has available. Ken campone attended Johns Hopkins University. Ken also has cerebral policy. Finding a job was difficult. He ended up in a sheltered workshop. Do you know how to meaning? It was going to a sheltered workshop after completing a difficult programming class. He

left after one day. But what if I did go back and work there, I probably would have still been there working for pennies on the dollar, not having the opportunities I have today. Yeah, you see this makes sense too. If society pushes disabled people into these low wage workshops, it tells them that this is where they're supposed to be, and it limits their potential because we know that disabled people are capable of doing great things. I mean, Stephen

Hawking was an astrophysicist. Even with a l S. Franklin Roosevelt, he ran the country from a wheelchair. Stevie Wonder is the reason that Happy Birthday is better at Black birthday parties than white birthday parties. And look this whole idea that disabled people shouldn't be paid the same as able bodied people because they're not as productive. Like, I don't know about that argument. Guys. Because it's not like every

able bodied person is great at their job either. If you ask me, disabled people should have the right to be as shitty at their jobs as everyone else. Yeah, they should also be able to show up late, just do enough work to not get fired, play fruit Ninja in the bathroom, and then leave at for thirty on the Dot That my Friends is Equality. The Daily Show with Trevor No Fears Edition. Subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive contents, and stream full episodes anytime

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