Kansans with disabilities deserve equal pay for equal work, not just pennies per hour | Opinion

Lawmakers have an important decision ahead of them that will impact Kansans with disabilities for years to come. Our state elected officials can choose to treat people with disabilities equally in our workforce — or these leaders can double down on a 1938 policy relic of the Franklin Roosevelt administration that allows people with disabilities to be paid subminimum wage.

Can you imagine this being an acceptable practice — to pay someone less than minimum wage — because of their race? Or if someone were required to do a productivity test to be paid minimum wage simply because they had a certain color of skin?

What if all adults over the age of 65 had to prove they deserved to earn minimum wage at their job, but individuals under 65 did not?

All of these scenarios are discriminatory.

Even worse, the bill currently under consideration in Topeka, H.B. 2275, would expand a tax credit to entities that pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage (also known as holding a 14(c) subminimum wage certificate from the U.S. Department of Labor). The current Kansas disability tax credit law, which was enacted in 2019, does not allow entities paying less than minimum wage to access these tax credits.

As lawmakers weigh this decision, the rest of our nation is moving ahead. Several states have already taken legislative and regulatory action to make this discriminatory practice illegal. The Virginia General Assembly just sent a bill to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk just a few days ago phasing out subminimum wage for people with disabilities in that state. Last week, federal officials introduced the bipartisan Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act, which not only repeals the 1938 program at the federal level, but also provides significant resources to help organizations transition their economic models away from paying less than minimum wage. President Joe Biden, during his 2020 campaign, indicated his support of phasing out subminimum wage.

Entities such as the National Council on Disability, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the U.S. Government Accountability Office have all released reports of the mistreatment of people with disabilities in sheltered workshops and outlined the unjust compensation practices of many 14(c) providers. All three entities have called on Congress to take action and repeal this 85-year old program.

On the surface, H.B. 2275 seems as if it would move the needle on the unemployment crisis facing Kansans with disabilities. However, it would perpetuate an archaic system designed to keep individuals with disabilities in a vicious cycle of poverty working in segregated work environments.

The American dream should be afforded to everyone. Someone who is making subminimum wage cannot truly achieve independence, especially financially. For individuals who can and want to work, we should create systems that incentivize work rather than a system that only imposes greater costs on government programs.

I strongly encourage lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, to move our state forward and advance policies that reward equal pay for equal work for all Kansans with disabilities — and not to double down on 85 years of discrimination.

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