Turns out there is a second minimum wage — a minimum wage for the disabled (currently, the minimum is effectively zero). And for supposedly moral reasons (reckoned in the absence of the morality of labor itself), some so-called advocates for the disabled are tirelessly working to price them out of the labor market.
This interesting article (the first in a series) in The Columbus Dispatch reviews the issues around wages and the disabled, with views of those interviewed running the gamut from Marxian exploitation theory to free market.
The debate comes down to this: Critics say low wages show that disabled workers are being exploited, but supporters say the pay rates reflect opportunities – that even the most disabled Ohioans are being given a chance to pursue work and build full lives.
I’m with the supporters. And it’s too bad some of those currently unemployed are barred from pursuing work and building full lives due to the belief held by many that to work is to be exploited.
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A good friend of mine has a severely mentally handicapped child who is in his mid 20′s. He has a job packing boxes where he is paid by piece rate. The goal is for him to pack 10 boxes per 4hr day but with the understanding that what ever he accomplishes is acceptable. In other-words no one is going to get up set if he only packs 1 or even none. The company that employs him does so more as a form of charity then for any real gain since his productivity varies greatly each day he works. In the end he usually earns enough money to buy a couple CD’s each week. Its never that much money since he rarely completes more then 4 boxes but quite frankly he could care less since he has zero understanding of what money is. What he does understand is that he can usually get a cd or two with his earnings at the end of each week. The most important thing his job does for him is provide him some sense of being a part of normal society. In fact, the first thing he tells anyone when he meets them is that he has a job.
I would imagine that his employer would end the program offering jobs to the mentally handicapped if they had to go from paying them $20-$30/wk(a week in this case is 3 – 4hr days) to a mandatory $90 regardless of the amount of work completed. It would also have the effect of putting more pressure on these people to produce — something that would probably frustrate them immensely. Of course, my guess as to how this would play out would be the government creating a false economy for these workers where the employer gets a rebate on their payroll taxes and the mentally handicapped gets paid for value they did not create. Thus, this would become another transfer of a form of private charity to a formal government handout.
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