Inertia, Subminimum Wage and New York State

Presently, New York State is in a state of inertia when it comes to eliminating subminimum wage for individuals with disabilities. This inactivity has increased in the past six months the number of individuals with disabilities from 400 to 1400 that are working below minimum wage. Assemblymember Phil Steck is the leading voice in the Assembly, trying to eliminate subminimum wage for individuals with disabilities. Unfortunately, other political leaders are caught in a state of inertia.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Our Ability Podcast. This is your host, John Robinson, and again, we're continuing our series of disability in the public square this May 2026. I got some thoughts today about uh where our place is in uh in history, where our place people with disabilities are, and I'm coming up with this word inertia, uh, the fundamental property of matter that causes an object to resist any change, its state of motion, inertia. Uh a friend of mine once said that uh inertia is a great force when I would complain why there wasn't change when I worked at a TV station. And uh he was right, inertia is a great force. I'm thinking this week about subminimum wage and employment first in New York State. I'm thinking about it in New York State because this is where I live. And so uh a lot of the uh the activity that I see around the community is is because of where I live and what's going on. And I'm thinking about subminimum wage specifically. For the past couple of years, I have been quietly pulled into meetings and working with friends of mine on eliminating subminimum wage in New York State. If you're not aware, New York State still has on the books the ability to employ individuals with disabilities below minimum wage for labor. This is something that has bothered me for a long time. And if you've ever heard me speak, you know I I feel this way. The law is a 14C certificate that the uh U.S. Department of Labor allows uh through a state, an entity to be able to employ uh individuals with disabilities below minimum wage. And the original theory was uh it it understandable at the time, I suppose, um, although I suppose I could argue against it. But after World War II, individuals with disabilities that were injured were coming back into rehabilitation. It was felt at the time that at least people could do something, a percentage of work. If you go back to the Constitution and three-fifths of a person, this kind of this kind of feels that way, doesn't it? But in the 40s, uh, yep, that I there was some progress in the fact that we were putting individuals that were injured to work. And so that's how it began. And then it expanded and expanded like all things do in the way that's the path of least resistance and in a capitalist society towards money. And so over the years, from the 40s through the 2000s, there were nonprofit individual, nonprofit groups around the country, uh in specific states, that would employ individuals with disabilities and realize that was a a way to increase revenue. When there were less federal funds, less state funds for these individuals nonprofit groups. One of the ways to pay the bills was to employ individuals with disabilities at subminimum wage and take that wage difference and in effect make money. Uh and I'm not saying that those nonprofit groups didn't do great work, they certainly did do great work. And I will always be um intellectually supportive of all nonprofits that support individuals with disabilities. But at the time this was thought to be appropriate. But as the money got better and as less federal and state resources came through for other programs, see the interest in getting your applesauce package, so to speak, and charging that manufacturer labor rates and paying your people with disabilities less, right? So that's where the profit is. Today, as we sit here in 2026, uh there are 16 states around the United States that have eliminated subminimum wage. And I'm it's wonderful to see that. I am so excited that there are 16 states. And it makes me think about why isn't it New York State? There are states around us, red states and blue states, states in the Northeast, that have eliminated subminimum wage, and yet here in New York State we have not done that. As I said, I've been brought into meetings over the past two or three years by New York State legislators. And I've spoken my piece about this. I I've been extremely public, again, being very public right now. I was on local cable news, lost a contract because of my opinion. But I firmly believe this. I believe individuals with disabilities should be treated the same in labor laws. If you believe, and if our society believes in a minimum wage at all, why would we look at a person as a percentage of another person? I thought we fought a civil war against that, and a civil rights war against that. And yet today in New York State and May 29th, 2026, New York State still allows subminimum wage for individuals with disabilities. And it's growing. You can go to the to the USdepartment of Labor.gov and see the agencies around the United States that employ individuals with disabilities at subminimum wage, and you can look at New York State's abbreviation and find those organizations that still employ individuals with disabilities. And that number is growing. I looked at that number in December, November of 2025, and it was about 300 to 400 people. I look at the number today, the latest number is as as of May 1st, 2026, and we're up to about 1,400 people. 1,400 people. That's a thousand-person increase. At the height of this back in the 80s, it was somewhere around 50,000 people in New York State. So we've gone down. We figured out how to find activity, whether it be work, whether it be uh some rehabilitation, whether it be services for other nonprofit organizations, we figured out how to help forty eight thousand five hundred other people in New York State. But for some reason we can't figure out the last 1,500 people. Is it because it's a profit center for those nonprofits? This is public information that I'm about to share share with you, but there's a Buffalo organization, there's a Port Henry organization, there's a Herkimer organization, Cortland, Rochester, Oneida, Olean, Mellonville, Utica, Oneonta, DePew, Rochester, Rochester, Alma, Tupper Lake, Rochester, Niagara Falls, not just small counties, not just big cities, and yet we're still allowing with our laws these organizations to employ individuals with disabilities at sub-minimum wage. Is it because this is a profit center for those nonprofits? Yes. Is it also because there are some family members out there afraid of the future of where someone might go if they can't work that subminimum wage job? Yes. But yet we figured out 48,500 people. Would we be a better state if we more appropriately respected individuals with disabilities as part of the greater ecosystem? Yes, we absolutely would. Can we do a better job in advocating with family members and parents that their family member with a disability has equal value in society? Absolutely. I'm not talking about people that cannot do anything. I'm talking about people that are doing and are being profited. Profited. In my opinion, that's wrong. And it's something that I think about all the time. I got a video this week on Facebook from Assemblymember Phil Steck in the Capitol region. Phil Steck has been standing up against sub-minimum wage practices in New York State. Presently, he is not on the Committee for People with Disabilities. Phil has asked my opinion over the past few years about how I feel about that, and I've been very happy to speak on behalf of this issue. I've lost friends, I've lost respect. People have lost respect in me, I've lost respect in others, but I firmly believe individuals with disabilities, if we're going to work, need to be paid equal. I applaud what Phil Steck and his staff do. He doesn't have to do this. But he thinks it's the right thing. There are committee members in the assembly in the Senate. There are chairpersons in both. Do they feel the same? It's awfully troubling when you see California figure it out, when you see New Hampshire figure it out, and when you see the 14 other states figure it out. Why can't we? New York State, based on executive order, is an employment first state, meaning employment should be the first option for individuals with disabilities. First of all, it shouldn't just be an executive order. The Senate and the Assembly should pass this, ratify it, make it permanent. Other states have. But we are an employment-first state, and what should follow suit are the laws and the financial practices of state organizations, nonprofits, and corporate America so that we don't profit off the labor of individuals with disabilities. I realize we as people with disabilities are the last. We have been forever. We will continue to be. But being last should not always be this painful. Heard the term last but not least, right? But right now we are last and least. And a big part of it is inertia. I come back to that. Inertia by our elected officials. Inertia by those of us that don't run against elected officials that want to make change. Inertia by family members that worry. And completely I understand that. Please understand, I understand. But if we don't do better for ourselves, that number that is fourteen hundred today as of May 1st, 2026, when it was 400 in November, could easily be 2,500. And then we're on a slippery slope of returning to a place where individuals with disabilities systematically are abused. We cannot have that. I urge you to think about this. I urge you to look up what's going on with Fair Pay in New York State, subminimum wage in New York State, reach out to Assemblymember Phil Steck's office, look up APSE online. It's a website that can help you understand where our place is in the United States as far as states go. That is apse.org. And it can talk to you and it can uh answer your questions about employment first and other things, disability employment. I'm proud to be on the side of eliminating sub minimum wage for individuals with disabilities. And I hope you are as well.