Fact Sheet #39: The Employment of Workers with Disabilities at Special Minimum Wages
This fact sheet provides general information concerning the application of section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Characteristics
Section 14(c) of the FLSA authorizes employers, after receiving a certificate from the Wage and Hour Division, to pay special minimum wages - wages less than the Federal minimum wage - to workers who have disabilities for the work being performed. The certificate also allows the payment of wages that are less than the prevailing wage to workers who have disabilities for the work being performed on contracts subject to the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act (SCA) and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act (PCA).
A worker who has disabilities for the job being performed is one whose earning or productive capacity is impaired by a physical or mental disability, including those relating to age or injury. Disabilities which may affect productive capacity include blindness, mental illness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, alcoholism and drug addiction. The following, taken by themselves, are not considered to be disabilities for purposes of paying special minimum wages: education disabilities, chronic unemployment, receipt of welfare benefits, nonattendance at school, juvenile delinquency, and correctional parole or probation.
Section 14(c) does not apply unless the disability actually impairs the worker's earning or productive capacity for the work being performed. The fact that a worker may have a disability is not in and of itself sufficient to warrant the payment of a special minimum wage.
Requirements
Certification
Employers must obtain an authorizing certificate from the Wage and Hour Division prior to paying special minimum wages to employees who have disabilities for the work being performed. Employers shall submit a properly completed application (Form WH-226-MIS, Application for Authority to Employ Workers with Disabilities at Special Minimum Wages.) and the required supporting documentation to: United States
Department
