Alert: Urge Your Congress Member to Co-Sponsor the TIME Act!

Ask your member of Congress to co-sponsor the 

TIME Act!

Congress has just introduced H.R.188, the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment, or TIME Act, formerly known as the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act.  This legislation would phase out Section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.  This would also force vocational rehabilitation agencies across the country to find meaningful placements for people with disabilities in which their abilities could be maximized and in which they could be successful and valued.

ACTION: 

Contact your Congressional representative to urge them to sign on as a co-sponsor to H.R.188, known as the TIME Act.  You may use the model language below to send a letter via fax or email to your representative today! Be sure to personalize the letter for your Representative. 

You can locate your Representative’s site with their contact information by first going to the member directory here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/. 

If you do not know who your member of Congress is, you can do a zip code search here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/. 

So far, Representative Peter King is the only New York Representative who is currently signed on as a co-sponsor to the TIME Act.

The following Representatives signed on as co-sponsors to the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act last session but have not yet signed on as a co-sponsor to the TIME Act.  Let’s make sure they sign on as co-sponsors this session! 

• Rep. Tonko
• Rep. Slaughter
• Rep. Engel
• Rep. Jeffries
• Rep. Velazquez
• Rep. Higgins
• Rep. Lowey
• Rep. Clarke
• Rep. Israel
• Rep. Carolyn Maloney

Model letter:

“Dear Representative:

I am writing to request that you consider co-sponsoring the TIME Act H.R. 188), formerly the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities    Act (H.R. 831).  This legislation would phase out Section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.  For several decades, this provision of the FLSA has been one of the major impediments to people with disabilities finding work in the community alongside their nondisabled peers at a living wage.  Disability rights advocates nationwide have long been pushing for repeal of Section 14 (c) of the FLSA.

This bill could potentially be the most important piece of disability rights legislation since the Americans with Disabilities Act. For far too long, a large number of people with disabilities have been placed in manufacturing jobs which their disability precludes them from ever succeeding at, and they are subsequently paid below the minimum wage because their rate is too slow.  This practice needs to end!

Passage of the TIME Act would dramatically change the employment outlook for people with disabilities for the better, and allow more people to become contributing citizens. If you have any questions or if I can provide any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time.

Thank you for your consideration.”

Background: Current Federal law allows the Secretary of Labor to grant special wage certificates to entities that provide employment to workers with disabilities, allowing such entities to pay their disabled workers at rates that are lower than the Federal minimum wage.  The practice of paying workers with disabilities less than the Federal minimum wage dates back to the 1930s, when there were virtually no employment opportunities for disabled workers in the mainstream workforce. Today, advancements in vocational rehabilitation, technology, and training provide disabled workers with greater opportunities than in the past, and the number of such workers in the national workforce has dramatically increased.  In the 75 years since this became law, studies have shown that fewer than 5% of over 400,000 workers with disabilities ever transition out of segregated, subminimum-wage, sheltered workshop settings to integrated, competitive employment.  This outdated model does not provide workers with disabilities with useful, marketable skills to obtain competitive, integrated employment in their communities.