WHAT OUR READERS SAID ABOUT A BBB WAGE PROPOSAL
By Joshua Barajas, @Josh_Barrage
Senior Editor, Digital
A couple weeks ago, Here’s the Deal took a closer look at a wage proposal in the Build Back Better bill. It seeks to end the practice of paying workers with disabilities lower than minimum wage. This is a practice that’s been legally in place for more than eight decades.
The bill would fund $324 million to help employers shift away from this practice, including issuing grants that would allow them to pay employees with disabilities at minimum wage or higher.
Several readers emailed us to share their thoughts about the proposal. One throughline in the responses: This issue is complex, and any legislation must be mindful of the different needs and realities among workers with disabilities.
Kandace Penner of Gainesville, Florida, wrote that she understands that there are people with disabilities who, with accommodations, “can do a normal competitive job and should of course be accommodated and paid at least minimum wage.” That said, she wrote that some people seem to be unaware of people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) that are “severe enough to make them unable to do any normal competitive job.”
One person is her daughter Brandy, who has moderate cerebral palsy. Penner said she and her husband were committed to efforts to help Brandy learn the skills for a competitive job. But it hasn’t been possible. Penner said Brandy liked working at her skill level, going to a job where she shredded paper, but she needed a companion to be with her while she did it.
“Brandy and thousands like her, who have some skills and some understanding and desire to work, will not be able to work in the community at a competitive job paying minimum wage. The only way it could work would be to pay a 1-on-1 companion to be with the person every day at work, to help them do the parts of the job they can’t do, to keep them from small accidents or missteps that affect them or their work pieces,” Penner wrote.
Sharon Marshall is an executive board officer for a nonprofit workshop in Harrisonville, Missouri, called Casco, which has helped people with disabilities in Cass County for about four decades. She wrote that the organization wants to retain the minimum wage exemption to continue its operations, writing that, in Missouri, “wages our workers make come directly from businesses willing to pay for the unique abilities our workers have.”
She added: “Not everyone with disabilities is blind, or physically disabled. Many of our (approximately) 200 workers are compounded with mental disabilities they were born with. We provide a place – a safe place – for them to not only have meaningful work but to work with friends, and to have a social life away from their homes. Working for less than minimum wage (it is complex but the wages are based on time studies per task and uses prevailing wage as a base) allows them to remain in assisted living or group homes, receive their Medicare or Medicaid, receive their social security from disability benefits, and still have a life that is rich with laughter, communal goals, and fun.”
Sarah Johnson of upstate New York developed a disability in 2020. After multiple rounds of eye surgery, her right eye was rendered non-functional. Since then, she said she’s had to navigate the world with one eye, adding that -- officially and legally -- she’s not considered “low vision.” When applying for jobs, she’s been trying to determine if she should reveal her eye issue.
“I tell you all of this because most ‘normal’ people have no idea what it is like to go through something like this,” Johnson wrote. “And friends have referred to me as handicapped, to my face, without thinking about how that might feel. I have not let this condition stop my work as a historian.”
She asked the NewsHour to dig deeper into this wage proposal because “the hard thing about it is it is not a one-size-fits-all problem. My eye issues are unrelated to someone on the autism spectrum or someone in a wheelchair.”
She then closed with a reminder to non-disabled audiences: “Person first, disability second.”
WE WANT YOUR QUESTIONS! What do you want to know about the current draft of the Build Back Better plan? You can reach us at
[email protected].
WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS: REP. CARRIE MEEK
By Ian Couzens, @iancouzenz
Politics production assistant
In this 1980 photo, Rep. Carrie Meek wears a t-shirt in the Florida House chamber that reads, "A woman's place is in the House and the Senate.” Photograph by Donn Dughi, courtesy of the State Archives of Florida.
Carrie P. Meek, a groundbreaking Democrat who was one of the first Black lawmakers to represent Florida in Congress since the Reconstruction era, died on Sunday in Miami. She was 95.
Meek achieved that congressional milestone in 1992 -- at 66 -- when she won the Democratic primary in her Miami-Dade County district, and ran unopposed in the general election.
In this 1982 photo, then-Florida state senator Carrie Meek waves a skull and crossbones flag during a session. She was warning against not funding a consumer advocate group at Florida State University. Photograph by Donn Dughi, courtesy of the State Archives of Florida
Before that, Meek was already known as a trailblazer in her field. She was the first Black professor, associate dean, and assistant to the Vice President at Miami Dade Community College. In 1978, she beat out 12 other candidates in a race for Florida's House of Representatives. Five years later, she became the first Black woman elected to the Florida Senate. It was during this time she developed a reputation as a fierce politician and a passionate advocate for her community.
The grandchild of a slave and a daughter to sharecropper parents, she fought for change around the country and the needs of her community. She championed issues like affirmative action, welfare, and worked to promote democracy abroad in places like Haiti. After leaving Congress in 2002, she moved back to her district where she continued to work on these issues through the Carrie Meek Foundation, until her death.
#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Tess Conciatori,
@tkconch
Politics producer
Today is the birthday of a late political icon who broke barriers as the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s nomination for president. That campaign inspired now-Vice President Kamala Harris in her own White House ticket; Harris’ logo paid tribute to this political predecessor.
Our question: Can you name that politician?
Send your answers to [email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.
Last week, we asked: Which president officially declared Thanksgiving to be held on the fourth Thursday of November?
The answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Congratulations to our winners: Tim Smith and Robert Schmid!
Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.
