Proposed regulations would cause lower employment for those with special needs
By Anne Schieber | Dec. 11, 2015
Work centers for the disabled provide a useful service for businesses while allowing individuals with special needs to gain work skills and autonomy. But new federal regulations would make life difficult for these charitable operations, potentially causing some to close their doors. These centers have historically been exempt from minimum wage laws, but proposed rules from the federal Labor Department would end the exemption. Regulators are also considering mandating "integrated work settings," which means they would have to employ more higher-priced, nondisabled workers to work with those who are disabled. For many centers, that means they would have to fire disabled workers to hire more regular staff.
For now, people with work challenges such as cognitive disabilities will continue to have employment options under an executive order signed by Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley. The order has the effect of insulating rehabilitation work centers from attempts to impose wage and hour regulations that are not appropriate to charitable efforts to provide gainful employment for disabled individuals.
Todd Culver, the executive director of the Michigan Association of Rehabilitation Organizations, the organization that represents work centers, applauded the order, known as “Employment First in Michigan,” because it includes language that his organization supports: “(It recognizes) a competitive employment within an integrated setting as the optimal outcome for persons with disabilities, and honors the choices and goals of individuals along their path to that optimal outcome,” Culver said.
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