National Federation of the Blind: Time-Sensitive Legislative Alert Regarding Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities

The following email was sent to us by Justin T. Young at the National Federation of the Blind.

On December 4, 2024, the US Department of Labor released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the phaseout of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The National Federation of the Blind fully supports this NPRM and submitted comments on Wednesday, January 15.

The NPRM has received thousands of individual comments from those in favor of keeping subminimum wages for people with disabilities. We apologize that we did not anticipate such a substantial response from these individuals who support subminimum wages. As a result, we have an urgent request for our members to submit comments by the deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Friday, January 17.

All comments are helpful even if the comment is, “I believe people with disabilities should be paid at least the minimum wage, and 14(c) certificates should be phased out.” All public comments should be submitted using the online form found at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/12/04/2024-27880/employment-of-workers-with-disabilities-under-section-14c-of-the-fair-labor-standards-act#open-comment.

The page contains a place for you to type in your comment, and then you will need to select that you are an individual, which will bring up fields for you to type in your first and last name. You will then need to check a box acknowledging you are aware any information you provide will be publicly available on regulations.gov before clicking “submit.”

Again, we apologize for the last-minute notice. Thank you for all your hard advocacy on this matter.

Justin T. Young, Ed.D

Government Affairs Specialist, National Federation of the Blind