It is legal for employers to pay disabled, student, and other workers less than the minimum wage.
Some workers are being paid less than $3.50 an hour, a practice the U.S. Department of Labor is considering changing.
Marissa Ditkowski, an attorney who works on economic justice for people with disabilities at the National Partnership for Women and Families, talks about how common subminimum wage wages are and what reforms could look like.
Read the full interview
Deepa Fernandes: “For decades, it has been legal for employers to pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage, and even today it is not uncommon for workers to make less than $3.50 an hour.
“The Department of Labor has been consulting with advocacy groups about the harms of paying so-called subminimum wages and what reforms might look like. Now I’m pleased to welcome Marissa Ditkowski, an attorney who works on disability economic justice at the National Partnership for Women and Families. Marissa, welcome to Here & Now.”
Marissa Ditkowski: “Thank you so much for having me.”
Fernandez: Marissa, can you explain how subminimum wage pay for workers with disabilities generally works?
Ditkowski: “Yes, absolutely. The Fair Labor Standards Act, commonly known as FALSA, sets national requirements regarding wages and compensation.
“There’s a section there called 14C, which basically lays out what employers can apply to be able to pay workers with certain disabilities below the federal minimum wage.
“Before, there was a minimum wage, but now there is no minimum wage. This means that you basically earn a few cents per hour. This wage is based on productivity, and how much work a worker with a disability can get done per hour compared to a worker without a disability.”
Fernandez: “Okay, so some of you may be wondering why. As I understand it, this sub-minimum wage has been around since the 1930s. When it was introduced, it was thought to be one of the few ways for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to gain employment. But Marissa, our culture has changed since then in terms of increased employment opportunities and acceptance. Is this reflected in the workplace and employment opportunities for people with disabilities?”
Ditkowski: “Yes, absolutely. There is still a lot of room for improvement in the workplace. There is still a lot of discrimination. There is still a lot of room for improvement in supported employment.”
“But the fact remains that this law was enacted in 1938 and has no relation to the current situation regarding disability and work. It devalues the work of disabled people, despite the productivity gap that exists among non-disabled workers.
“These are very capitalist values that are rooted in sexism, racism and ableism – all of which the National Partnership for Women and Families is working to address.”
Fernanes: “So can you give me some examples of companies that pay disabled workers below the minimum wage?”
Ditowski: “Goodwill is probably one of the most famous examples. How Goodwill works varies by location, but many Goodwill locations still pay their employees a fraction of a dollar. Meanwhile, the CEO of Goodwill International is making about $600,000 in 2022. That’s a pretty big difference.”
“There are many other organizations that are nonprofits but place their students or program participants in for-profit facilities. For example, there is a nonprofit called the Helen Keller National Center in New York that places students in Applebee’s. They also place students in Barnes & Noble. These are various businesses that exploit workers with disabilities.”
Fernandez: “That’s interesting because I shop at Goodwill a lot and they’re very much known for being a place where people with disabilities can work, so it feels like I’m supporting that. So it’s interesting to know about the wage gap.”
“I wonder how such a small salary would affect people’s lives. Surely disabled people have expenses too?”
Ditkowski: “Exactly. We’re looking at this in conjunction with other disability programs that keep people with disabilities in poverty. There’s the subminimum wage, there’s Supplemental Security Income through the Social Security Administration. And the maximum an individual can make is $914 a month. And there are asset limits through that program, SSI. A lot of people who rely on Medicaid to get supported employment services and other services and live and work in the community have asset limits.
“This really impacts how people with disabilities can pay for the necessities of life, like food, healthcare and rent.”
Fernandez: “Not all states allow subminimum wage, so what are states doing to address the challenges surrounding subminimum wage?”
Ditkowski: “Yes, that’s correct. There are about 13 states that have phased out subminimum wage wages. The first was Vermont in 2002, the second was Maryland in 2020. So there’s a pretty big difference.
“But states like Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire and Minnesota have also proposed bills to phase out subminimum wage wages, but nothing has passed yet.”
Fernandez: “And ideally, would it be good for the federal government to make some reforms going forward?”
Ditkowski: “Yes. There are some bills in Congress that would phase out sub-minimum wage wages, and that would be the ideal scenario. But obviously Congress is not necessarily in a position to do that. So there are federal agencies that are taking steps to try to phase out sub-minimum wage wages, or to figure out what they can do to phase them out.”
Fernandez: “And I wonder, I’ve heard from some companies that not having a sub-minimum wage might affect their ability to hire people with disabilities. I’ve heard some companies that it might have a negative, almost unintended, impact on employment opportunities for people with disabilities.”
Ditkowski: “Yeah. So I think companies really have an incentive to continue doing this, right? So they’re going to say, ‘This is not possible. It’s going to negatively impact disabled people,’ and so on.”
“And it’s true that just raising the sub-minimum wage doesn’t solve everything. We really need to make reforms to ensure that disabled people have access to supported employment services and all the other things to support them. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
Fernandez: “Marissa Ditkowki is an attorney who works on disability economic justice at the National Partnership for Women and Families. Thank you, Marissa.”
Ditkowski: Thank you.
Ashley Locke produced and edited this interview with Julia Corcoran for broadcast; Grace Griffin edited it for the web.