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Jennifer HemmingsenI'm a columnist and member of The Gazette's editorial board. I live in Iowa City. Twitter: @jhemmingsen, or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hemmingsenyah |
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Protect sheltered workshops
Diana Simmons (right) of Marion and Patti Loth of Cedar Rapids work on a repackaging project for a tool company at Options of Linn County on Williams Blvd. in southwest Cedar Rapids on Thursday, April 1, 2010. Employers worry that if Senator Tom Harkin changes the legislation on subminimum wage, many disabled workers will be out of employment. (Julie Koehn/The Gazette)
There are good intentions behind legislators’ efforts to do away with minimum- wage requirement exemptions for some workers with disabilities.
We’ve seen evidence right here in Iowa that those exemptions can be shamefully abused by unscrupulous employers exploiting vulnerable adults.
But the way to address bad actors like Henry’s Turkey Service — which bilked Atalissa-based workers with cognitive disabilities out of wages and benefits for decades — isn’t to shutter all sheltered workshops.
It’s to increase transparency and strengthen regulation to weed them out while allowing good programs to flourish.
Last month, Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns introduced the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act, which would do away with special wage certificates that allow employers to pay some disabled workers sub-minimum wages.
The bill, now in committee, calls for revoking for-profit companies’ wage exemptions in a year, and non-profit exemptions in three.
Stearns argues that the 1938 law allowing sub-minimum wages is a relic — crafted before the rehabilitation services, training and tools that now enable so many workers with disabilities to successfully gain and keep employment at and above minimum wage.
What Stearns doesn’t say is that programs exempt from minimum wage also have come a long way since 1938 — evolving into a blend of sheltered workshops, supported employment and enclave services tailored to individual workers’ abilities and needs.
Stearns calls the wage exemption an incentive to exploit disabled workers. He argues it would be too expensive to give federal regulators enough resources to truly keep an eye on employers paying sub-minimum wages.
But when doing the accounting, Stearns doesn’t address the costs, tangible and intangible, of denying so many willing adults the dignity of work.
We’ve seen what it looks like when regulators don’t mind the store: It looks like a rundown old bunkhouse with boarded-up windows. Like two dozen malnourished men, paid just 41 cents an hour for grueling, full-time work.
Abuses have made it clear something must be done to better protect sub-minimum-wage workers.
But before they consider killing the wage exemption, legislators must look more closely at the many more programs that use exemptions to employ thousands of workers who would be left out in the cold in today’s competitive market.
They must protect the sheltered workplace programs that work.
Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net
Agreed Jennifer. What happened in Atalissa must never happen again, but not by abolishing the wage exemptions, but instead as you suggest with increased transparency. Where was the federal over-sight for Henry’s Turkey Service? Let’s fix that.
In the meantime lets not punish the mentally handicapped workers in the well regulated, well operated and open sheltered workshops like Options or Systems Unlimited by making them compete head-to-head with non-handicapped workers. It is just not fair.
So, for those that question the fairness of sub-minimum wage workshops, consider this: why do the Special Olympics exist? Why not just ask all of the talented, motivated and very competitive handicapped athletes who participate in the Special Olympics to simply compete in the regular Olympics? Does that seem fair? No. Maybe we should expect our elementary school students to test at high school levels in math and science? Doesn’t seem fair, does it?
So why would we ask mentally handicapped workers, many who struggle with simple concepts like money and appropriate social interaction, to compete directly with “normal” workers in the job market?
I would suggest that anyone who thinks the proposed HR 3086 bill is a good thing for the mentally handicapped workforce currently in sheltered workshops, should first go visit one of these workshops and see who is working there and how they do their jobs. Then offer your opinion on the proposed law.
Jennifer, this Thanksgiving you and your fellow travelers at the Gazette should pat yourself on the back for your efforts to spin the sheltered workshops pay issue into a crisis.
God forbid that these handicapped workers should ever be giving the dignity of taking home at least the minimum wage. Why that would be as outrageous as giving women the right to vote, or counting black people as only 3/5 of person in the census. Discrimination was good enough for early American democracy and it appears that to many ‘caring overseers’ it is just fine today, too!
Sheltering the mentally handicapped from the minimum wage will definitely give meaning to the term “Sheltered Workshop”.
The prizes in programs like the Special Olympics are real prizes, not watered down rewards like the 10 cents of the dollar salary the mentally handicapped get. And just as they earn a real prize in these competitions, they should get a real wage.
In a civil society that has billions to spend on consumerism, sports and entertainment, there’s no reason to give sub-minimum wages to some. It’s time to the right thing.
Jennifer, it is obvious that you don’t idenify as disabled. Given that this is the one minority group that you can join at any moment (and then you might find yourself working for pennies a day), you might want to reconsider your perspective.
The potential passage of HR 3086 in congress next year may not be a crisis by most of our standards. In fact it could be passed and nobody except those of us who are close to a mentally handicapped worker would probably notice it happened. But, for those of us who have a loved one in this segment of the population, the effects will be devastating. The passage of this bill will require that all employers pay minimum wage to everyone, or simply not hire them. Sadly, many of the mentally handicapped workers in this country will get the “unemployment” option if HR 3086 passes.
Today there is no law that says a mentally handicapped worker must be paid less than minimum wage. Many workers like my son, go to work everyday because they like it; they enjoy the work, they like to see their friends at work, the like the feeling of accomplishment, and, yes, they get very small paychecks. But some of the higher functioning mentally handicapped workers do go on to jobs where they make minimum wage. That is fantastic that they can do this. Many of these workers came through sheltered workshops that helped them to acquire and hone their skills they perform at their jobs today. But, for many mentally handicapped workers, they will just never be able to compete head-to-head with a “normal” worker who is not mentally handicapped. Many of these workers do not have the mental capacity, or judgement, or social skills to work independently in the community. The sad but hard fact is that they cannot compete in an open job market. Simple economics says that if they cannot perform the work as good or better than the next job candidate, then they will not get the job. I consider it unfair to make them compete in a NO-WIN situation.
Consider this, if you were a small business owner, trying to make ends meet in this economy, would you hire a worker who can, through no fault of his own, work at only 1/4 the speed, or accuracy of another, “normal” worker? No, you would not. This is why the concept of “Sheltered Workshop” is so important: the accent is purposely on SHELTERED. These workers need it. If you have never seen a sheltered workshop in operation before, then you must visit one before judging what is best for these people. Go see how Options of Linn County works, then decide whether sheltered workshops are valuable or not.
So, my hope for this Thanksgiving, and for many more Thanksgivings to come, is that the many hard-working employees at sheltered workshops all over the country can sit down and feel thankful for a job where they feel useful and valuable, have pride in a job well done and are rewarded for it, even if it is a sub-minimum wage job.