His plan would prohibit jobs for severely disabled people like my autistic son and daughter
Under the President’s plan, all job options would be off the table for disabled people like the author’s son Jonny, pictured here, rendering them, at best, permanent volunteers.
By Jill Escher
I recently wrote about how the Biden administration’s shift toward basing federal policy on facts, metrics and reality should be good news for the growing population disabled by severe autism and related disabilities.
So we should be worried about Biden’s non fact-based — and dangerous — opening move: the pursuit of the elimination of non-competitive employment for Americans with severe disabilities. As reported by Disability Scoop, “In his first major undertaking, President-elect Joe Biden wants to do away with a decades-old option to pay workers with disabilities less than minimum wage.”
Now, it goes without saying that a great many individuals with disabilities have the mental and functional capacity to engage in competitive work, for at or above minimum wage. We should fully support Biden’s desire to provide a transition to competitive employment for every single disabled individual who wishes to meet the demands of the marketplace.
But doing away with section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) is an unnecessary scorched-earth tactic that will prohibit all work programs, including those serving the other, less capable, portion of the disability spectrum.
With so many jobs and programs at stake, we should ask, why such an extreme measure? Where are the facts and data to support eliminating all non-competitive jobs for all those with disabilities? What metric for success justifies throwing out that precious job-program baby with the social-justice bathwater?
There is in fact no data indicating that the proposed policy would help the more intensely disabled population, and, worse, the proposal to nix their jobs comes with no assurance of viable alternatives. Presumably those who lack intellectual or functional capacity to compete for minimum wage jobs are to sit at home all day in the care of their parents (who will no longer be able to work themselves, exacerbating the economic fallout) or group home providers. If they want purposeful work their only option would be as no-wage volunteers. How does that provide justice?
Moreover, FLSA 14(c) programs are not just about the wages, they often offer multiple benefits unavailable in the competitive workplace, including close supervision, therapeutic care, ongoing coaching, and social and recreational activities. A standard job supervisor is unlikely to treat seizures, change diapers or menstrual pads, allow for poor performance or absenteeism, or handle getting punched or scratched, to put it mildly. There is nothing "discriminatory" about jobs that protect the severely disabled from being fired or from the vicissitudes of the free market. Further, seen from a broader perspective, 14(c) paychecks often represent a small part of a suite of benefits, including SSI as well as Medicaid waiver programs. The job earnings — which are subject to an exacting certification process to ensure the wage is commensurate with the worker’s actual productivity — needs to be seen as part of a whole package of benefits that allow our most vulnerable citizens to participate in and contribute to society.
If the Biden administration stands by its fact-driven approach to policy, it will accept the realities of severe disability instead of the data-free fantasy often touted by high-functioning disability rights advocates that "all people with disabilities can earn minimum wage," when any reasonable observer can see this is simply untrue. My own autistic children, for example, are nonverbal, cannot follow even simple directions without continual guidance, and exhibit an array of disruptive behaviors . It is not just unlikely, it is impossible that they would ever be hired for competitive-wage jobs. The Biden plan would extinguish any hope for their future employment. In addition, a fact-based approach would be mindful of the staggering increase in the population with severe autism (growing at least 10- to 40-fold, depending on the data source), who will need vastly more, not fewer, options for day programming and supported forms of employment for those incapable of attaining competitive work.
The bottom line is this: retaining a non-competitive work option for the severely disabled does nothing to negate or undermine expansion of competitive employment for those capable of integrated minimum wage jobs. Both work options can and should peacefully coexist to serve a dramatically diverse disability population.
Any pragmatic, fact-based, and indeed compassionate and humane, approach would leave 14(c) intact for our disabled fellow citizens who lack capacity for competitive employment. Please, Biden administration, let's base policy on real-life people, real-life metrics, and not a feel-good fantasy.
Jill Escher is President of the National Council on Severe Autism, an autism research philanthropist, and a housing provider for adults with autism and developmental disabilities.
See also:
NCSA Letter: We must retain non-competitive employment options for Americans with severe disabilities
"We are prepared to go to war" to save our disabled kids’ jobs
Federal Bill Would Put Jobs Out of Reach for Severely Autistic Adults
Disclaimer: Blogposts on the NCSA blog represent the opinions of the individual authors and not necessarily the views or positions of the NCSA or its board of directors.