Bill Text: CA AJR36 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Special Minimum Wage Certificate Program.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2014-08-21 - Ordered to inactive file at the request of Senator Hueso. [AJR36 Detail]

Download: California-2013-AJR36-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AJR 36	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Gonzalez
   (Coauthor: Senator Hueso)

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2014

   Relative to wages.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AJR 36, as introduced, Gonzalez. Special Minimum Wage Certificate
Program.
   This measure would urge the United States Congress to phase out
the use of the Special Minimum Wage Certificate provision and
eventually repeal Section 14 (c) of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, Meaningful employment, and the wages associated with it,
can be an integral part of enabling human dignity and creating more
meaningful lives for disabled persons; and
   WHEREAS, The 1938 federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets out in
Section 14(c) the ability for entities that employ disabled persons
to obtain special minimum wage certificates from the United States
Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division which entitle them to
pay a disabled worker less than the legislated minimum wage rate; and

   WHEREAS, The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act's subminimum wage
provisions were created in the era of the Great Depression with the
intent of subsidizing sheltered workshops which could not afford to
pay their workers full wages and, some may argue, incentivizing
private companies to employ disabled persons; and
   WHEREAS, These special wage rates are calculated according to
productivity with no specified wage floor; and
   WHEREAS, The productivity-based calculation of a special minimum
wage is generally done by a complicated "time study" which entails an
administrator comparing how fast a disabled worker is able to
complete a certain task compared to nondisabled workers; and
   WHEREAS, There differing work and equipment conditions beyond the
worker's control, a lack of oversight and enforcement by the Wage and
Hour Division for the special minimum wage certificates, a lack of
consistency in the time study tests done by employers, and a singling
out of disabled workers given that the general workforce is not
subjected to standards of timed productivity, the time study practice
to determine that wages are both inconsistent and unfair; and
   WHEREAS, Time studies and the subminimum wages they produce have
been described by disabled workers throughout the media as
humiliating, degrading, and making them feel like "second-class
citizens"; and
   WHEREAS, Some entities have claimed that the special minimum wage
certificates are an essential stepping stone to permanent and fully
paid employment in the general workforce. The Psychiatric
Rehabilitation Journal published empirical evidence in 2004 which
suggested that sheltered workshops are generally ineffective at
progressing the disabled workers, while for other employers the
special minimum wage certificates serve as an incentive to exploit
disabled workers rather than integrate them into the mainstream
economy; and
   WHEREAS, It has been widely documented that many of the
organizations which employ disabled persons are in financial
situations that would enable them to pay minimum wage to all of their
disabled employees, evident in the high compensation packages paid
to their executives; and
   WHEREAS, Some employers, such as the National Industries for the
Blind, have already recognized the exploitive nature of paying
disabled workers subminimum wage and have been able to transition to
the payment of Federal minimum wage, or higher, to their disabled
employees without a significant change in profitability or a
reduction in their workforce; now therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature of California request that
the United States Congress should phase out the use of the Special
Minimum Wage Certificate provision and eventually repeal Section 14
(c) of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act to support the goal of
competitive integrated employment of people with disabilities through
the use of modern practices of vocational training, improved
technology, and innovative rehabilitation and employment strategies;
and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to
the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and
Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.