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This page is a list of questions and answers for use by members of the Task Force on Eliminating Subminimum Wages when responding to questions about the task force's legislative report or the phase-out of subminimum wages in Minnesota. It is built from questions received during Olmstead Implementation Office lunch and learn sessions on task force activities as well as those asked during other presentations.
The federal government allows some employers to pay less than the federal minimum wage to workers with disabilities. Subminimum wage was created more than 80 years ago to give people with disabilities more opportunities to enter the workforce. At the time, workers with disabilities were believed to be less productive than those without disabilities so employers gave them lower pay. We now know that workers with disabilities, given opportunity and the right supports, can work as well or better than people without disabilities.
One of the reasons the plan and recommendations that the task force developed is so important is to make sure the transition is inclusive of everyone – regardless of their disability. This was a top task force consideration in building the plan and one we heard from community engagement.
Several of the recommendations proposed by the task force specifically address the support needs of people with significant disabilities and provide a path to helping them meet their goals. These recommendations include expanding supported employment and customized employment training, where job developers work with employers to tailor jobs to people’s specific skills and job coaches help people be successful at their job as well as strengthening access to transportation supports. The task force also recommending a targeted engagement, education, and support effort to reach people currently earning subminimum wages during the transition.
Minnesota is an Employment First state. That means we have the expectation that people with disabilities can work in competitive, integrated employment and our public supports help people meet their competitive employment goals – regardless of disability status. We believe the right job is out there, we just have to be creative and hard working to find it. There are services right now that can help people plan, find and keep a job that matches their skills and interests.
For people who are not interested in competitive employment, finding out what interests them and brings meaning to their days is a first step in planning supports. People may volunteer, build community navigation skills or pursue hobbies. Task force recommendations include strengthening Minnesota’s day support services as well as providing incentives for community access within these supports. We realize the importance of a full, meaningful day, which might mean supporting people with a variety of services – both work and non-work supports.
Benefits support work. All public programs in Minnesota have special rules, called work incentives, that help people be better off financially and let them keep health care benefits when they work. People can get help understanding work and benefits through waiver employment services, using such tools as Disability Benefits 101 (DB101) and through the Disability Hub MN.
Managing work and benefits takes planning as well as understanding the incentives that exist. Through its engagement work, the task force learned that people and families were not aware of incentives and were concerned about benefits. The task force recommendations include:
There are supports available now to help people with exploring employment, planning their careers, finding the right job and being successful in their job. People who get waiver services can start by telling their case manager they are interested in working and asking about services to help them with their employment goals.
The task force looked at how to support a transition statewide, including greater Minnesota. It heard concerns from smaller communities about having employment options or needed supports available. We also saw that some communities in the state have relied upon subminimum wages and center-based services as the primary option for people with disabilities – sometimes with only one or two service provider options in their area.
To support a successful transition in greater Minnesota, the task force recommends:
Smaller communities also bring the benefits of stronger informal networks. It will be important to use the community resources, relationships and strengths of local areas across the state in a transition.
We have a nationwide shortage of direct support professionals that is affecting all types of supports for people with disabilities, including employment supports. There is not an easy answer to this shortage and it will not go away overnight. But it cannot be an excuse for ignoring the rights of people with disabilities or neglecting the work we need to do to advance our support system.
To address workforce shortages, the task force is recommending increases to reimbursement rates through fully funding the competitive workforce factor and updating inflationary data in waiver and personal care assistance service rates.
We need to rethink our community supports in the context of the workforce shortage and increasing individualized, community based supports. We need to call upon the strengths of our communities across the state to be supportive places that include people with disabilities. We need to leverage informal networks and reduce reliance on formal services paid for by the state. As part of this, the task force recommends engaging community businesses and developing training/certification to support them in being inclusive worksites.
We also have a labor market right now where there is a historic demand for workers across the economy. This is a great opportunity to get people into jobs.
Being person-centered and ensuring informed choice are core concepts that motivated the Legislature to create the task force. Professionals who support people with disabilities need to listen to what a person wants in their life and use that to inform support planning. In making decisions about their supports, especially if considering services that could segregate them from the broader community, people with disabilities need to have good information, knowledge and experiences to make decisions.
People probably do not want to be paid subminimum wages, but they value the experiences, connections and supports they have while being paid subminimum wages. As a state, and as part of the work of the task force, we need to help providers transition their supports so that they can help people meet their goals and find value in what they do without relying on subminimum wages.
In 2020, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called for an end to a subminimum wage because it violates the civil rights protections of people with disabilities. They also found that subminimum wages prevent people with disabilities from realizing their full potential.
Since 1938, when the law allowing subminimum wages was created, we have learned a lot about how to support people with disabilities. We now know that workers with disabilities, given opportunity and the right supports, can work as well or better than people without disabilities.
There are many organizations in Minnesota that have ended their use of subminimum wages and are successfully providing competitive employment supports or are in the process of ending their use of subminimum wages. If you are on a waiver and interested in services through one of these providers, ask your case manager or counselor about providers supporting competitive employment in your area.
There are also many organizations nationwide and even whole states that have ended the use of subminimum wages.
Some providers who pay subminimum wages in Minnesota are worried about ending them and what it would mean for the way they provide supports. Some don’t understand how they can provide supports differently. Some see value in paying subminimum wages. And others want to make the transition, but need help. To help providers who want to make this change, the Minnesota Legislature created a Provider Reinvention Grant program that offers both money and technical assistance to help providers change the way they provide supports.
They do not have to close, but they may need to change their business model. Employment and day service providers can still provide supports – including center-based employment supports – to people with disabilities without using subminimum wages. Many service providers in Minnesota have already successfully transitioned to paying competitive wages. Additionally, task force recommendations include technical assistance for service providers to help them shift their business models away from subminimum wages.
Service providers that extensively or exclusively provide supports using subminimum wages will need to plan and adapt to an end to subminimum wages. This might include renegotiating contracts with community businesses and rethinking how supports advance people to competitive employment, but it does not mean they need to close.
We find that people with disabilities are safer in community inclusive environments rather than settings where they primarily interact with other people with disabilities and paid support staff.
First, it is important to check our assumptions about whether people with disabilities value money. When conducting engagement for the report, the Task Force on Eliminating Subminimum Wages heard from both people with disabilities and their families. Families reported in feedback that their loved ones did not care about the size of their paycheck. People with disabilities, however, overwhelmingly reported size of income as important to them.
Second, part of the issues a historic reliance on subminimum wages has created is limited employment options for people with disabilities, concentrated in few industries (light manufacturing, cleaning, etc.). Moving to competitive wages pushes our system to support people on individualized employment paths that finds what is important to them and what they like to do and build a career around it. In addition to increasing the size of paychecks, moving to competitive employment also improves the quality of the job fit.
Part of the role of a job developer is to identify good job matches for a person and a business. Although employers do not want to have a disruptive workplace and manage inappropriate behavior, they are often willing to provide the accommodations and support that employees need to be successful on the job. The key component is finding the right job for the right person.
All our behavior is a form of communication. Especially when we aren’t able to communicate through other means and when we are placed in settings that don’t match our skills or interests, outbursts or negative behavior might feel like the only option people have. Finding an environment conducive to someone’s success can go a long way toward reducing behavior issues. We have heard of numerous stories from job developers where a person who previously had “behavior” issues in a sheltered workshop setting got a competitive job and the behaviors stopped.
Finally, all of us have bad days. We need to have grace and understanding that people with disabilities have bad days too.
Employment is not just about having any amount of income. Employment is about contributing through our unique skills and strengths to our community/society and earning the resources each of us needs to live our best life. Employment is about providing something of value and getting compensated for it. Employment at subminimum wages cannot provide the resources someone needs to be financially independent.
When we pay people subminimum wages, we are saying we do not value their work enough to pay even the minimum of what is legally acceptable to pay others. As a society, we are placing low value on the contributions people with disabilities make every day they work.
Given the choice of doing work that is not valued by an employer enough to pay minimum wage or to find another way, such as volunteering, to contribute to the community without pay, many people with disabilities would choose the latter.
This question is why the work of the task force and the plan developed is so important. We have seen evidence-based practices lead to competitive employment in other states. We know it is possible, but we also know it requires aligning resources correctly. There is great work happening and examples of these services across the state. But we also hear that a lot of people still don’t know about these supports and that accessing them can be difficult.
In 2018, DHS spent about $240 million on facility-based work and only $21 million on integrated employment services. We need to invest in integrated employment supports to make them more widely and readily available. Imagine what our supports would look like if these funding ratios were switched.
We have emphasized the importance of competitive employment for a long time in the state. But change is hard. These spending levels do not reflect a state for which competitive employment supports are a priority. We need to take other actions, beyond emphasizing the importance and value of competitive employment supports. Ending subminimum wages and setting a transition plan will provide the impetus our state needs to take this change seriously and allocate our resources accordingly.
