On Sept. 26, advocates for people with developmental disabilities dropped a bombshell on Ohio lawmakers — without even trying.
For more than 90 years, businesses have been able to use a formal exception to federal wage laws to pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage. Those programs, known as sheltered workshops or Section 14(c) programs, have quietly existed in states throughout the U.S., though they’ve increasingly come under fire from advocates. States from Alaska to Maine have passed laws eliminating the programs within their borders.
Yet it became clear at a Sept. 26 “State of Disability” Town Hall, hosted by Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled (LADD), that some Ohio leaders had no idea the workshops even exist.
Members of LADD’s Empowerment Committee, who also benefit from LADD services, asked city, county and state leaders if they support the sub-minimum wage programs in Ohio. Some panelists looked at one another in confusion.
“Everybody needs to make a decent living. So, sub or low minimum wage sounds horrible to me,” said Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Kearney. “If that’s a thing now, let’s talk about that because that just resonates with me in a really negative way.”
Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus was also stunned by the question.
“Thank you for the question; I didn’t know there was a sub-minimum wage. So, you’re educating me on this issue,” she said. “I do not support a sub-minimum wage for people doing the same work. I can’t think of any rationale why you would pay someone any differently because they have a disability.”
LADD and its mission
As a non-profit, LADD supports 700 adult community members with developmental disabilities to live, work and connect through community housing, employment and community engagement programs, according to a press release from the organization. Still, the demand for accommodations for adults with disabilities far outweighs what’s available in Cincinnati and across the state.
Data from a 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) indicates that only 28.4% of working age Ohioans with a cognitive disability were employed.
Susan Brownknight, CEO of LADD, told CityBeat the organization’s job program connects adults with disabilities with jobs that are integrated in the community. At those jobs, unlike sheltered workshops, they earn a standard wage.
“Our job program is all community-integrated employment. People are working in community-based jobs just like anybody else. We support people in finding a job and securing that job and supporting that person as they learn that job, and then we’re available in perpetuity,” she said.
14(c) programs
U.S. Department of Labor data shows 869 businesses and nonprofits hold a 14(c) permit, or have a pending application. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a 14(c) certificate allows “employers to pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities that impair their productivity for the work they perform.”
In Ohio, there are 50 issued or pending permits, and Cincinnati has two: Easterseals Tristate LLC, which employs 76 workers with disabilities on sub-minimum wage, and Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries, which employs 296 workers on sub-minimum wage.
Pam Green is president and CEO of Easterseals Redwood, which provides employment and education services to Greater Cincinnati individuals with disabilities, as well as veterans and people facing economic disadvantages.
Green told CityBeat she understands why those who hear about the sub-minimum wage for the first time might be shocked.
“When you say you’re going to pay somebody less than minimum wage, that sounds absolutely awful,” Green said. “It sounds exploitative. It sounds terrible.” Yet, she said, these programs historically provided a valuable service: “Very often in a capitalist society it is very hard to find employers who are able to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities.”
Green told CityBeat that Easterseals, like many disability organizations, has evolved over the years, giving adults with disabilities the chance to earn a standard wage through community-based employment. Last year, Easterseals Redwood provided job placement and support to 225 people with disabilities, all in community-integrated jobs that pay competitive wages.
Green said that Easterseals has been slowly moving away from 14(c) programs for years.
“In 2015, our board made the decision to not use 14(c) in Hamilton County anymore,” Green said. “At that time, we had 319 people with disabilities who were working under 14(c). By 2018 that number was down to 171.”
Now, all of the 14(c) services Easterseals Redwood provides are in Butler County, in a facility located on Symmes Road. But despite movement away from such programs, Green said the workshop has become essential to the people who work there.
“Those 76 folks you’re talking about, many are older, and this has been their job for a long time. And, quite frankly, out of respect for them and their family, we’ve made the decision not to close that center,” Green said.
These employees are paid a standard rate for the work they complete, but not all employees work at equal paces. Green said the compensation structure operates the same across 14(c)s.
“You get a job in, it’s usually production work, and you have typically-abled people who do the job,” Green said. “Say I can produce one widget every 10 minutes — except we do it on an hourly basis — and so you decide, OK, if the market rate to do that work is $16 an hour, and you can produce 16 in an hour, then you get paid $1 for every one that you produce.”
How many widgets an employee can produce in an hour can vary drastically depending on the employee’s abilities, and Green said the makeup of the assembly environment means one person’s productivity can impact another’s.
“When you’re operating an organizational employment center, you want to offer employment opportunities to as many people as possible, so it’s inefficient by design,” Green said. “You’ll take a process that could be done in three steps, but you want everybody who’s there that day to have the opportunity to work, so you break it down into 12 steps so that everyone has something to do.”
Green said the programs fill an important need. She says Easterseals is only using them for those without better-paid options: “We really aren’t accepting any new folks there, unless they have tried community employment and have not been able to succeed.”
While Easterseals’ Butler County program gives its remaining 14(c) employees a long-term place to work, Michael Flannery, public information officer for Ohio Valley Goodwill, told CityBeat Goodwill’s 14(c) program is designed to be a starting point to prepare people for community-based jobs that pay regular wages.
“Ohio Valley Goodwill offers a variety of choice-driven programs. One of which is our ‘Pre-Employment Training Program,’ which teaches people many skills needed for employment. Those who participate in this program do earn a paycheck but they are not paid an hourly wage; they are paid based on their individual production.”
Flannery said that, of the 1769 people with disabilities who took part in Goodwill’s program last year, 759 ended up receiving competitive jobs out in the community.
Statehouse Democrats push against the 14(c)s
During Tuesday’s LADD Town Hall, Representative Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) said he’s generally against the practice, but said he’s open to hearing from organizations if there is a genuine need for 14(c)s.
“My position on this sort of follows where the Biden and Obama administrations have been, which is one of the first things the Biden administrations did which is restore an executive order from the Obama administration around this. Which is to take all federal contractors back up to $15 minimum wage, including folks with disabilities, including folks on the sub-minimum wage,” he said. “That’s my position, although I’m open to — if LADD feels differently I’d be open to talk to you more about it, certainly.”
Lawmakers at the Ohio Statehouse have introduced a bill to eliminate such programs in the state altogether.
House Bill 716, introduced in August 2022 by Representative Brigid Kelly (D-Cincinnati) and Representative Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus), seeks to eliminate the sub-minimum wage for Ohioans with disabilities.
“When these folks are hired to do jobs, they should be paid the same as their able-bodied nondisabled peers,” Kelly told NBC4 after the bill’s introduction.
Green said it’s a common fear among adults with disabilities who collect benefits like Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance that they will lose those benefits if they start to make more money.
“It is really hard for people with disabilities to get out of poverty,” Green said. “It’s really hard for people with disabilities to feel safe walking away from Social Security Disability income. The people that I talked about that we hired, it was a big struggle to get them to start to work more hours when they started making minimum wage and more; they were terrified of losing their pay.”
Isaacsohn told CityBeat he wasn’t sure if HB716 would protect individuals from losing their state benefits while making a standard minimum wage, but Green said qualifying adults who collect state benefits for their disability are allowed to contribute money to a STABLE account, a savings account that allows adults with disabilities to amass a savings account for basic necessities without losing their government assistance.
Flannery told CityBeat that Goodwill would respect the decision if the HB716 were to become law, but emphasized that Ohioans with disabilities need more employment options, not less. He mentioned Employment First, a policy to ensure every Ohioan of working age has an opportunity to seek employment.
“While Ohio Valley Goodwill is a strong supporter of the state initiative of Employment First, we feel a wide range of vocational options should be available to individuals with disabilities. Goodwill honors the individual’s right to choose the option that best meets their needs,” he said. “In 2022 Ohio Valley Goodwill received the Employment First award from APSE; the Association of People Supporting Employment First. Ohio Valley Goodwill is not advocating for or against Bill 716. If passed, OVGI will comply completely, as we do now with 14(c).”
He encouraged those who are currently struggling to access their disability benefits to reach out to their representative, who can help speed along the process.
“Please reach out if you think we can help,” Isaacsohn said. “Your state representatives can’t do much from the superminority on every policy issue, but we can be great constituent advocates.”
Kristen Saul, a member of LADD’s Empowerment Committee, told CityBeat the surprise among politicians about 14(c) employment proves more people need to know about policies affecting people with disabilities.
“That’s disheartening,” Saul said. “Our people need the pay just as much as regular people. Not quote-unquote ‘what the disability is,’ but how they perform in the job itself.”
Review the current version of HB716 below:
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This article appears in Sep 20 – Oct 3, 2023.