OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Subminimum Wage for the Disabled

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 15, 2010
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Employment and Affirmative Action

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Mr. CLEAVER. There are a number of issues that fail to make it to the floor, but there's one issue that I absolutely feel strongly about and believe that the people of this Congress and the people of the Nation need to know, and that is the subminimum wage for people with disabilities.

Inclusion is a birthright. This is a civil right. And there is a rule in the Department of Labor called 14(c). It's a certificate from the United States Department of Labor which says that people with disabilities can get paid less than subminimum wage. But it is not subminimum wage for all of them--it is hardly a wage at all. Some of these people who are on disability are making 45 cents an hour or less in sheltered workshops.

So I am suggesting that this issue is so important that it needs to be brought to the floor of the United States Congress. This is a civil right, and we need to make it something that is a priority of this Congress as soon as possible.

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