Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!
Illinois is in a multi-year rollout to ensure companies pay all workers a fair wage. Governor JB Pritzker signed the Dignity in Pay Act last year, requiring companies to pay workers with Disabilities at least minimum wage by 2029, putting an end-date on disability-based pay inequity in Illinois.
The state law diverges from the United States Department of Labor’s 14(c) waiver program, which allows employers to pay less than minimum wage to workers whose disabilities, employers argue, limit their productivity. State Representative Theresa Mah, the law’s lead sponsor, rejected that framing at a press conference last year, saying: “No longer will individuals who have untapped potential be subject to a one-size-fits-all assumption and unfair treatments just because of a disability.”
Easterseals’ HB Threads apparel company offers a clear model for what paying people fairly looks like in practice: it has always paid its workers above minimum wage, and all associates make at least Chicago’s $15 hourly minimum wage. HB Threads makes buttons, magnets and apparel for clients like the White Sox, Huntington Bank and Rockford Ice Hogs, focuses on hiring workers of all abilities, and its current associates are all on the autism spectrum; Kooistra said, “We want to really have this integrated workforce,” where people with disabilities and people that don’t have disabilities work together and “it takes that stigma away.”
The flashback explains why this shift matters: the Engnell family started Harry’s Buttons in 1998 when their son, Harry Jr., couldn’t land a job after finishing school, and it grew after they invited Harry’s Special Olympics friends over to work with the button makers. The Engnells handed the business to Easterseals in 2009 to give it more support to grow, and now the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities is providing technical support to companies to move away from subminimum wage by the 2029 deadline; Mah, an HB Threads associate and advocates will discuss “Building Stronger Workforces Through Disability Inclusion” on Tuesday, March 10, at Impact House in the Loop. For Community Builders, the direction in this story is direct: remove barriers that treat Disability as a reason for unfair treatment, and build workplaces where People with Disabilities are paid at least minimum wage and included as full participants.
Read the Full Article: Chicago company offers model as Illinois phases out subminimum wages.
By: Carrie Shepherd
