98,000 U.S. Disabled Workers Earn Less than $1 an Hour

[The Straight Story]

98,000 U.S. Disabled Workers Earn Less than $1 an Hour
Thursday, December 31, 2009

Federal law permits businesses to pay employees who are mentally retarded pennies an hour, a reality that has sparked a new debate at care homes in Iowa. An investigation by the Des Moines Register discovered that more than 300 mentally disabled people have been paid less than minimum wage—about 60 cents an hour—to work at state-run homes for the disabled. One worker made as little as 11 cents an hour working for a company, Oriental Trading Co., owned by The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s richest private equity firms.

Companies that pay less than federal minimum wage must apply for certification status with the U.S. Department of Labor, which maintains a public list on its website. Nationwide there are about 425,000 disabled Americans working for non-profits, government agencies and for-profit companies for less than the minimum wage. More than half are paid less than $2.50 an hour and about 98,000 are paid less than a dollar an hour.

Advocates for the disabled argue it’s time to eliminate the special exemption for mentally diabled workers, claiming the low wages amount to exploitation. But one head of an Iowa-based care home says without the exemption, the workers wouldn’t have jobs.

“It is part of a person’s self-esteem,” said Woodward Superintendent Jim Finch. “Oftentimes, I’ll go down to the payroll office when our clients come in and start picking up their checks on payday, on Friday. And, you know, whether it’s 50 cents or $300, they are just so excited. They want to show you their checks and show you that they get paid for doing work. It’s a big morale booster.”

http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/98000_US_Disabled_Workers_Earn_Less_than_1_Dollar_an_Hour_91231

[MercutioATC]

1. It IS true that they wouldn't have jobs if they had to be paid minimum wage.

I don't think it's unreasonable, though, to set a federal minimum wage for them...obviously lower than the actual minimum wage.

[On the Road]

4. Whether They're Being Taken Advantage of

I guess would depend on how productive they are.

Maybe they are a gold mine to their employers, who are milking them for all they're worth. Or maybe it's not really worth it economically and they're doing these programs partly out of charity. No enough information.

[FreakinDJ]

2. Who pays the teacher to watch them

my wife works in 1 of those facilities and the ratio of teachers to clients is 1:3

BTW: she teaches

[Trillo]

3. Since CEOs earn so much when it's backwards-calculated to per hour,

they truly must be super-duper-capable folks. The implication, I guess, is that the top-paid CEOs must have IQs of 40,000 or thereabouts.

Poor kid can't even afford the clothes he's pictured wearing.

[cornermouse]

5. There's something very wrong with this picture.

Why isn't it on the democratic agenda?