Protected Class? Not So Fast: The Exploitation of Workers with Disabilities

By Sarah Patnaude

Editor’s Note: Sarah Patnaude is our affiliate’s corresponding secretary. Among other tasks, Sarah oversees our social media channels, our website, newsletter production, and promotion campaigns surrounding events like the state convention. She is a member of the Potomac Chapter and represents the chapter in the Chapter Leadership Institute. In May 2019, Sarah graduated from George Mason with a Masters in Social Work, and before leaving the halls of Academia, she wrote an article for the university newspaper that appears below with permission.

Everyone has that one thing that fires them up. For me, it’s knowing that I am not protected under the law as I enter the workforce. The government continues to systematically discriminate against me and my peers with disabilities. While preparing to graduate with my Masters of Social Work, I have continuously engaged in conversations regarding the barriers within employment and the impact of income. However, the discussion around employment and income is typically limited to racial and ethnic identities, gender, and sometimes mental health. Disability is left out of the conversation.

Many have heard of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938. This piece of legislation outlines the rights and protections of workers. The federal minimum wage, currently set at $7.25/hour , is one of the protections workers are entitled to under FLSA. Did you know that this protection is not guaranteed if you have a disability? That’s right: employers can legally pay their workers with disabilities below the minimum wage. Through a provision in the law, Sec 14(c), employers can obtain special wage certificates from the Department of Labor, allowing them to pay their workers a fraction of the wage their coworkers without disabilities are paid - sometimes just pennies per hour. Wages are based on timed-tests given to employees. However, these tests are set up for employees to fail. For example, Harold Leigland, blind, sorts and hang clothes by color at Goodwill Industries. His job doesn't set him up for success. Making matters worse, Harold's productivity was tested by his ability to sort toys by similarity - a task which was also inaccessible - resulting in his wage dropping to $2.75.

Rooted in the beliefs and culture of 1938, the practice of paying workers with disabilities subminimum wages stems from misconceptions and stereotypes. Often society equates disability with low productivity and low competence. However, that cannot be further from the truth. Workers with disabilities can work alongside their nondisabled coworkers in competitive integrated work environments. Subminimum wages is not a comparable compensation for the work people with disabilities produce. Instead, it is an expression of the low expectations the government and employers have for people with disabilities and a modern day form of exploitation.

Putting on the social work hat, this policy is not only discriminatory, it is oppressive. How can someone live on a wage that is just pennies or dollars an hour or a wage that changes every few months? The simple answer: someone can’t. Food, housing, transportation, healthcare and all the other services and products we need to meet our needs cost money. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the current living wage in Virginia is approximately $14 for one adult. If $7.25 is not enough to live on, then why are we expecting those with disabilities to live off of even less? Through this practice, we are not only telling people with disabilities that they are inferior, we are keeping them in a cycle of dependency that is difficult to get out of. The fraction of a wage - if we can even call it that - people with disabilities earn due to this practice creates and fosters barriers in surviving and thriving.

Disability is an income issue. The current policies in place continues the cycle of oppression for people with disabilities, preventing us from living the lives we have the capacity to live and further perpetrating damaging stereotypes of disabilities. Let’s not forget about people with disabilities as we continue to discuss the issues surrounding income and employment and fight for equal and fair wages for all. All means all.