A provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act allows entities with a specific waiver, known as a 14(c) certificate, the ability to pay a person with a disability less than minimum wage. This program, which was created under the theory that it would train people with disabilities to work and gradually transition them into the workforce, has kept such people in unintegrated jobs where they make pennies on the dollar for many decades now. The Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act (TCIEA) will phase out the 14(c) certificates and help to find integrated employment opportunities for persons working in such settings.
The bill, S. 2438, will provide funding to states and businesses to help transition people who are currently working in such settings out of these placements. Furthermore, the funding will provide technical assistance to states and businesses to shift their settings to a competitive, integrated environment. Although the bill ultimately works to eliminate subminimum wage and unintegrated work situations, it will take steps to ease existing working environments into better workplaces for people with disabilities.
Following up on my previous message below,