When we think of how oppression operates in a legal sense, we may look to institutional imagery, such as the Supreme Court or the suppression of protests, but when it comes to income and employment inequality for disabled people, it’s an excel spreadsheet that we see.
The document in question includes a list of organizations and businesses that have or intend to have a section 14(c) certificate. This certificate, if approved, means these employers — some of them positioning themselves as inclusive workplaces — can pay certain disabled people, often those with intellectual disabilities, below minimum wage.
What began as a provision of President Roosevelt’s 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which was meant to improve employment for disabled people — employment was seen then, same as now, as a key part of someone’s American-ness — came at a time when institutionalization was the only path for a lot of marginalized folks. But it has apparently morphed into something else entirely: a business-branded excuse to dehumanize disabled workers in yet another way.
Exploitation under capitalism isn’t necessarily surprising, but some of the employers who opt in to the program and choose to pay disabled people substandard wages are less obvious: For example, the government of South Carolina, and at least seven chapters of one of the largest nonprofits dedicated to intellectually and developmentally disabled people, The Arc, are featured on the list.
In 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that only 40.8% of disabled Americans are employed; for those without disabilities, that number rockets up to 77.3%. For those disabled people who are employed, there is a significant wage gap compared with their non-disabled peers. Age and the type of job play a part, but the United States Census Bureau has reported that disabled people as an employee group make 13 cents less per dollar.
The 14(c) certificates can broaden that divide. A report from the US Government Accountability Office published earlier this year said most 14(c) workers make under $3.50 per hour — below half of the already unlivable federal minimum wage.
As of November 1, there were 844 organizations on that list, representing about 42,622 workers. These organizations include many disability-focused groups and community rehabilitation programs that serve disabled people. Thanks to internet archives, we can also see which organizations historically sought to pay disabled workers under minimum wage including US Steel, a unionized workplace; multiple school districts across the country; a tribal government; a hospital; and many more. This affects many working people, and it warps our perceptions of disabled people as a whole.
Frankly, a lot of the disabled people who get to talk about employment — people like me — have been given a lot of chances at work. We have post-secondary degrees, we have found ways to make money, we do rent, buy, and build wealth (even if it isn’t nearly as easy to come by as it is for many non-disabled people). Part of the failure that overshadows discussions of these certificates is that we don’t hear from nearly enough people who are at risk of being sequestered away for wages as low as a couple of dollars an hour.
Plus, a lot of the arguments for these certificates boil down to wondering whether the ends justify the means. Does providing disabled people employment, even if it’s for a significantly reduced standard of wage, improve their quality of life? That’s an argument we can have, in theory, but when you are, like some companies on this list, paying hundreds of people below the minimum wage to supposedly empower them, it’s hard not to see that as less of an employment program and more of a warehousing of disabled people. That kind of supposed inclusion, which can, for many, be more like a sheltered workshop, is the very thing the independent-living movement has consistently been rallying against. There were hearings about this practice in the 1980s, and at least 13 states have banned the use of 14c certificates entirely.
Some have pointed to a kinship between sheltered workshops and prison factories. Historically, many of the organizations operating sheltered workshops have been making products, packing items, building things, and making contributions that employees should be paid a standard wage for. Instead, these employees are offered less than minimum wage, in the same way incarcerated people are paid just a few dollars for hard labor.
When we accept something like a 14(c) certificate as allowable, especially for organizations that are supposed to be supporting disabled people, we’re saying that a living wage is only for a select group. And, as usual, many intellectually and developmentally disabled folks are left out in the cold.
There is some hope, though. The Department of Labor recently announced that it will be doing a review of 14(c) certificates — and this isn’t the first time these certificates have received government scrutiny. In the estimation of organizations like the American Association of People With Disabilities (AAPD), this certificate is a relic of a bygone era, a diplomatic way of encouraging employment that has lost its way.
According to a press release, AAPD president and CEO Maria Town said, “14(c) certificates are inherently based on a deeply flawed and false idea that disabled workers’ labor is worth less. It is a policy rooted in a charity model of disability that communicates to disabled employees, ‘You should be grateful for whatever you can get.’”
So what can you do? For one thing, you can look at the current list of registered organizations and see who in your area holds a certificate. You can speak to disabled workers in your community about whether they are feeling supported at work, and you can keep pressure on your local and federal sections of government to interrogate why these certificates are still being so broadly used. We are seeing a downward trend in the number of 14(c) certificates issued, but they still exist — and they are still used as a weapon against a higher standard of living for disabled people in the US.
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