Under a little-known regulation called 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, businesses can apply for permits to pay disabled employees well below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. That amount can dip down to mere pennies in some cases. In one particularly galling story from Ohio, a woman who had promised to take her family out to dinner found out she made 38 cents the entire month. The average wage of disabled people is $2.15 an hour while minimum wage is $7.15 and $15 in some states.

There is no limit to how little they can be paid so there have been recorded cases of disabled people legally being paid 3 cents an hour for a job healthy people were being paid above minimum wage for. The reasoning behind this act is that disabled people are less productive so they should be paid less. This is abelist thinking and opens disabled people up to being exploited for cheap labor when they disclose their disability to their employer. Why disclose their disability? To get accessibility accommodations; so disabled people must chose between working in an inaccessible environment and having good wages or having accommodations and low wages. I know many able bodied people who are very unproductive at their job and they don't get their wages docked. Furthermore, studies show disabled people burn 40 to 60 percent more energy doing basic tasks than healthy people so they spend more energy to be paid less- up to .004% as much as a healthy person, and .002% in a state with a $15 min wage!

This law is abelist and allows employers to exploit disabled workers for cheap labor. It isn't right. It is the opposite of the American dream. If you believe in America, if you believe in justice, sign this petition!