Far Below Minimum Wage

[upstatecajun]

Some say low pay for the disabled is immoral; others view the federal law as a godsend

Thousands of adults with Down syndrome, autism and other developmental disabilities work in Ohio at jobs that pay less money than a teen-age baby sitter earns.
Some clean hotel rooms for 40 cents an hour. Others sew table linens for 79 cents an hour. Some assemble automotive parts for $2.15 an hour or answer telephones for $3.75 an hour.

The majority don't earn half of the state minimum wage of $7.40.

A little-known provision in the 73-year-old federal wage law allows employers to pay less than minimum wage if adults have disabilities that limit their productivity.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/05/22/far-below-minimum-wage.html?sid=101

[Brickbat]

1. I view it as immoral.

[alc]

3. it's more complicated

Stores around me hire quite a few from the assisted living facility in the neighborhood. The facility says it's great that their residents have the opportunity for a job - it's not to pay their expenses but to feel a purpose.

There are lots of other people in the community looking for jobs, especially for the summer now that school is almost out. They would almost certainly get many of the jobs over the disabled if it cost the store the same. The disabled are competent and polite but significantly slower at things like bagging groceries and stocking shelves.

In one particular case, the woman bagging will get 2 or 3 items in a bag while the cashier rings me up and bags the rest of the items (7-10 bags). She's been there about 9 months and is usually put with the better cashiers so overall the line goes about as fast as the others. The reality is that the store is giving her a purpose to her life (in the facility's words) and a paycheck she is proud of but she is not performing much service.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. That's just sad

I certainly wouldn't mind waiting a few extra minutes for my groceries. Glad the store is giving the disabled a chance to work.

[Brickbat]

5. The same arguments were used against black people years ago.

If someone's good enough to hire, she's good enough to pay full wage.

[Scuba]

2. Wrong in many ways....

...teaching the disabled that they're not worthy.

...avoidance of paying a decent wage for work (regardless of who performs)

...avoidance of payroll taxes

...basic discrimination.


I'm sure DU'er can think of others.

[jp11]

6. It is a complicated issue from the aspect of an employee not doing the same work

as other employees to some just wanting to find some meaning in their lives through work and the pay isn't their primary motivation.

Having said that it is not 'fair' that many people who have no disabilities are paid the same as others when they themselves don't work the same. I think everyone who's ever held a job can attest to some people who dragged their feet, avoided working, etc when others were more productive and kept busy. How is that dealt with, those people are, sometimes, reprimanded, paid less (better workers get higher raises), get less hours/consideration, etc.

I don't see a real problem with this so long as all people doing the same job are on the same method of being paid, ie if you get paid $9.00 an hour to process 100 units an hour and only process 50 you get $4.50 if you process 200 you get $9.00. Either you are paid 'per piece' or you aren't if you aren't it shouldn't be an issue except in a few cases. In the example of a janitor if I expect you to clean the building in 8hrs because the person who did the job before you was able to do it then you better be able to do it or be close to that or you aren't qualified to do the job. That or you work extra on your own time to get it done because you want to keep the job, assuming that is feasible for you and the business.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. The problem according to the article is keeping people at an artificially low wage

whether in sheltered workshops or coached jobs as a way of keeping the pay low rather than recognizing that their work has more value and thus they should earn more. As happens all too often, an exception made with good intentions opens the door for exploitation. Some workers with developmental disabilities may never be able to compete outside of a sheltered setting and a subminimum wage pay still convey the sense of pride in working and making their own money, but to those who can work as productively as the minimum standard for the job deserve to be paid the minimum wage.

[xoom]

8. I'm taking a intro to econ class, and my teacher stated that a minimum wage

Hurts those it intends to help because paying more per job leaves fewer jobs out there.

[LiberalLoner]

9. There are others who feel a minimum wage helps to set a floor

under wages so that all workers benefit.

If you get a chance, please read "Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck or "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair to see why minimum wages were established to start with. Workers compete for jobs, and if there is surplus labor (as there almost always is) there can often be a situation where workers end up working for less wages than they actually need to survive, as well as working in dangerous conditions where they risk death and injury.

We once had a nation where there were no worker protections and no minimum wages. Please read up when you can about what conditions were like for average families in the 1800's and early 1900's before FDR instituted the provisions of the New Deal.

[Odin2005]

11. Your teacher is a RW propagandist and should be fired.

[LiberalLoner]

12. I respectfully disagree. I think students should be exposed to

a wide variety of ideas about economic policies, etc. I think a professor has just as much of a right to espouse these ideas, as he has a right to espouse Keynesian economics. In an ideal world, a good professor would lay out all the competing economic theories before the students, expecting them to learn all different sides of the issue, without taking a stance and exposing his or her own personal beliefs. But in the real world, professors often do espouse their personal beliefs. And since something like 80 percent of the staff of college are Democrats, that means the kids are mostly exposed to left-leaning beliefs.

Now, of course I feel the Keynesian economists have it right, but it's wrong to censor what can be taught in public colleges and restrict it to either only right-wing ideas or left-wing ideas.

[Odin2005]

10. It is the same in Minnesota and it is disgusting and immoral.