Sickening : mentally disabled workers paid a third of a cent an hour

This is just outrageous. People need to go to jail and have their butts kicked over this.

"A third of a cent an hour" - low pay for disabled workers

State records indicate that approximately 10,000 physically and mentally disabled workers in Wisconsin don't make at least the minimum wage.

Minimum wage in Wisconsin is $7.25, equivalent to the rate set by the federal government as well.

But Disability Rights Wisconsin, a protection and advocacy group for people with disabilities across Wisconsin, says many disabled workers don't even make anything close to minimum wage.

"We found a person...that was earning a third of a cent an hour," said the group's supervising attorney, Jodi Hanna. "We need to change things like that."

Seriously... I have a mentally disabled cousin and if someone exploited him like that, I would sue the hell out of him... Scum of the earth... taking advantage of the mentally disabled... you can't go much lower than that.

This isn't exclusive to the USA sadly.

Here in Europe we have special programs too that profit from the disabled.

It's disgusting indeed.

Originally posted by Vitchilo
This is just outrageous. People need to go to jail and have their butts kicked over this.

"A third of a cent an hour" - low pay for disabled workers

State records indicate that approximately 10,000 physically and mentally disabled workers in Wisconsin don't make at least the minimum wage.

Minimum wage in Wisconsin is $7.25, equivalent to the rate set by the federal government as well.

But Disability Rights Wisconsin, a protection and advocacy group for people with disabilities across Wisconsin, says many disabled workers don't even make anything close to minimum wage.

"We found a person...that was earning a third of a cent an hour," said the group's supervising attorney, Jodi Hanna. "We need to change things like that."

Seriously... I have a mentally disabled cousin and if someone exploited him like that, I would sue the hell out of him... Scum of the earth... taking advantage of the mentally disabled... you can't go much lower than that.

It reminds me of the rest home in "Happy Gilmore". They say they need to change things like that? No, they need to conduct criminal prosecutions on things like this. Apparently a version of slave labor is alive and well in the 21st century. They probably enjoy the work and are happy while being exploited too. How obscene.

I suppose that it's because of the mentaly disabled person's trust in the other person that they stayed. I mean, seriously, if the guy making 1/3rd a cent per hour has ever walked around outside, he's probably found a penny before. That's 3 hours of his time. It would be a more profitable and probably more enjoyable job for him to walk around and find loose change. Hell if he found a dime that would be 30 hours of his time.

Does he really not see this?

Could be all made up:

a) We don't know what work he/she did if any.
b) Could be just a game
c) It cold be just some kind of motivation. If I tell my kid to do the homework, clean up his room and mow the loan and promise him to buy $1 ice cream in the evening... Does it mean that he worked a few hours for $1 as well as exploitation of child's labor? I don't want to be devil's advocate, just not enough info to jump to the conclusion.


Sorry, didn't mean to post it 3 times - I received the message ERROR. Connection to the server is lost.

Could be all made up:

a) We don't know what work he/she did if any.
b) Could be just a game
c) It cold be just some kind of motivation. If I tell my kid to do the homework, clean up his room and mow the loan and promise him to buy $1 ice cream in the evening... Does it mean that he worked a few hours for $1 as well as exploitation of child's labor? I don't want to be devil's advocate, just not enough info to jump to the conclusion.

Could be all made up:

a) We don't know what work he/she did if any.
b) Could be just a game
c) It cold be just some kind of motivation. If I tell my kid to do the homework, clean up his room and mow the loan and promise him to buy $1 ice cream in the evening... Does it mean that he worked a few hours for $1 as well as exploitation of child's labor? I don't want to be devil's advocate, just not enough info to jump to the conclusions.

the people that r doing this dont need 2 go 2 jail they need 2 get there a$$ kicked.....

Workers of America, look upon your future.

Originally posted by therealcatman
the people that r doing this dont need 2 go 2 jail they need 2 get there a$$ kicked.....

I think the first would lead to seeing the second accomplished, frequently and severely.

give me a baseball bat / a jar of lube = justice done.

if they are in group homes, or part of some sort of agency that places them, well they take all the necessary funds out of their pay for the pay of staff to help them. now if the employers like walmart or whoever else employs these people under pay them then its wrong.

I've seen a pretty large number of handicapped people working at Target and always thought that was honorable. But then I read that there are ways to pay below minimum wage and now I don't know what to think...that'd be pretty low to pay them less if they're working the same job. They deserve no respect for hiring them if they pay them less.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Prosecution for this kind of abuse should be harsh, someone should do jail time and enough punitive damages attached people would think twice before trying it again. What does this say about not only Wisconsin I'm sorry but, us as a country of civilized people? It is filthy, abusive and shameful.

As someone who has driven people such types of jobs let me clarify a few things as they were clarified to me because I had the same reaction.

Some jobs pay on a per piece production. Those sorts of jobs are outside minimum wage laws regardless of the person doing the job. Most of the MR/DD working these sorts of jobs receive SSI benefits. For some jobs, it is a requirement. SSI pays out far more than minimum wage, in fact in combination of their job (low pay as it was) they actually made both more per hour and more per year than I did. Especially when looking at all the benefits such as housing and in house care/supervision depending on individual needs.

While on the surface, it looks like they are getting ripped off there is one other consideration. SSI benefits have a maximum income cap. If the individual makes more than that cap, they have to pay the difference back to Social Securiy. That cap is also determined on the individual and is not a tiered system like with retired workers with part time jobs. One girl I drove actually had to pay close to $15,000 one year due to the amount of overtime she put in at factory job that paid $11.25/hr.

While there those that would exploit such workers in such a fashion, this is probably not the case in this situation. The Federal penalties alone would be enough to discourage such behavior as they can be per diem penalties of thousands of dollars for such abuses as well as minimum sentences per case that can also be looked at as each day a separate instance.

Both the elderly and the mentally handicapped are some very protected classes when it comes to US laws on abuse. It in fact makes the special circumstances of Hate Crimes look very blasé in comparison.

Originally posted by Turq1
I've seen a pretty large number of handicapped people working at Target and always thought that was honorable. But then I read that there are ways to pay below minimum wage and now I don't know what to think...that'd be pretty low to pay them less if they're working the same job. They deserve no respect for hiring them if they pay them less.

Sometimes companies are offered partial wages paid by the Federal, State or local government to hire the handicapped in the first place. It may seem unnecessary but without these incentives many companies would not hire them. This will be one of the first "social programs" cut if Republicans are allowed to do their worst.

There is a wonderful couple around West Palm Beach who opened a large shredding operation and hire the handicapped to do all the work. I was trying to find work for a buddy of mine in a wheelchair and heard about them through a veterans agency. I am not sure if they are getting government assistance to do this but the workers are all paid decent and at least minimum wage. This one company gets a huge amount of government papers to shred.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Why so shocked? This is exactly what Republican candidates, including Ron Paul, want. The elimination of minimum wage, the removal of medicare, medicaid. I'm not sure how you can be outraged at this considering that the freemarket allows for such a thing to be.

What is the problem here?
Free market.
Capitalism.
Yay!
The last thing we need is more job killing regulation on business.

When someone is considered no longer "disabled" they are given a letter with the type of work that the person can find. These jobs are not considered the pick of the litter.

This is just another loophole for companies to receive a large sum of "extra" cash for hiring someone who is disabled, but those that take adults off off SSI are just as guilty. They find new ways to take children that have been "disabled" since childhood, never give them proper schooling and then let them go.

Peace, NRE.

BTW, I am a ware of this personally. Its is an outrage.
S&F

I was told that by drawing SSI, that if I made any money...ANY money, at all, it was to be reported and paid back to Social Security. So, here is what confuses me...one of the posters said that SSI is determined by the minimum wage in the state that is paying you?

If so...then I'm getting "ripped" by the government...

What else is new?

As for someone being paid a1/3 of a cent per hr. Cost too much in paper work to keep track of for tax purposes...ya think?