3 Groups Most Impacted by Passage of TIME Act

The Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment Act (TIME) was introduced to Congress by Representative Gregg Harper earlier in 2015. The act aims to gradually repeal Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which allows employers to acquire special wage certificates for disabled workers to pay employees less than minimum wage. The bill has only been introduced and has not been voted on.

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The following people would be most impacted by the passage of the TIME Act:

1. The Functioning Disabled
Sheila Leigland, blind Goodwill employee in Montana, only earned $3.99 an hour working at Goodwill where she was assigned the job of sorting clothes even though she could not see the size labels.

Leigland is fully functioning and could have reached normal productivity answering phones, according to Forbes. Special wage certificates enable some functioning disabled workers to be underpaid solely because they are disabled.

The TIME Act would prevent disabled employees from being paid under the federal minimum wage and would thus incentivize employees to assign disabled employees to tasks that they can reasonably perform.

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2. The Severely Disabled
Some disabled individuals are not capable of reaching normal productivity. Such individuals would lose employment as a result of the TIME act because employers would not be willing to pay them full minimum wages. “The big secret is that it is not just about the paycheck. It’s about quality of life and pride in earning a paycheck,” says Bob Brown, father of a severely disabled daughter who works at a warehouse where, he says, “she talks to her friends, plays her DS game and watches a movie” most days, reports the Las Vegas Review Journal.

If passed, the TIME Act would result in this group of individuals losing their jobs, as maintaining the employment of the severely disabled would mean laying off other workers who can meet productivity expectations.

3. Employers
The TIME Act asserts that “employees with disabilities who are provided with proper rehabilitation services, training and tools can be as productive as employees without disabilities.” However, the TIME Act burdens employers with providing these extra services and training. At the same time, it would assure that any disabled employees are not being exploited.

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