Emily Bennett packages products at South Valley Training Company. She works under a 14(c) contract, which allows her employer to pay her below minimum wage due to her disabilities. (Anita Bennett)
Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City resident Deborah Bowman says her daughter Heather is “a little fighter.”
Heather nearly drowned when she was just under 2 years old, Bowman said, and doctors initially thought she wouldn’t make it through the night. The accident left her cortically blind and with no reflexes.
Through a lot of therapy, home care and “a billion miracles,” Heather eventually regained her vision and some of her movement, Bowman said. She’s now 40 years old and though many of her large motor skills have never returned, she’s been able to hold several jobs.
For instance, Bowman said Heather worked several hours a week for four or five years through the South Valley Training Company, a service provider for adults with disabilities, where she did tasks like sorting items and putting together colored pencil packets.
But because she worked under a 14(c) contract, Heather only made about $2 an hour, Bowman said.
According to the US Department of Labor, 14(c) contracts “authorize employers to pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities that impair their productivity for the work they perform.”
“14(c)” refers to section 214, subsection C, of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which lays out under what conditions “handicapped workers” can be paid less than minimum wage.
According to a 2020 brief created by the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University, the policy is only meant to be applied when a person’s disability impairs their work, such as blindness, developmental disabilities or even mental illness and addiction.
But there are examples of the policy being abused, such as Rock River Valley Self Help Enterprises in Illinois, which lost its 14(c) certification in April 2018 after the US Department of Labor found the company had been exploiting nearly 250 workers with disabilities by paying them with gift cards instead of wages.
In another case from February 2016, an administrative judge from the US Department of Labor found that Seneca Re-Ad in Ohio was guilty of wrongfully underpaying 14(c) contracted employees, as well as denying those employees reasonable accommodations.
Nate Crippes, an attorney with the Disability Law Center of Utah, said he’s not aware of any Utah businesses that have lost their 14(c) certifications for exploiting workers.
The US Department of Labor maintains a list of all organizations in the country certified or seeking certification to use 14(c) contracts. The list, last updated on Oct. 1, includes 12 Utah companies.
Currently certified Utah companies:
- Transitional Training Center in Taylorsville — certified until Dec. 31; 15 employees paid below minimum wage
- Valley Personnel Service, Inc. in Orem — certified until Feb. 29, 2024; 36 employees paid below minimum wage
Utah companies with certifications that expired this year:
- Interior Solutions in Salt Lake City — certification expired Nov. 30; one employee paid below minimum wage
- Columbus Foundation, Inc. in Salt Lake City — certification expired Oct. 30; Nine paid employees below minimum wage
Utah companies waiting for certification as of Oct. 1:
- The Work Activity Center, Inc. in West Valley City
- South Valley Training Company, Inc. in Sandy
- Stringham Lumber in Salt Lake City
- DDMS Day Program in Salt Lake City
- Central Utah Enterprises in Provo
- Life Skills Vocational Center in Midvale
- Cache Employment and Training Center in Logan
- Utah State Developmental Center at American Fork
Bowman said she has mixed feelings about 14(c) contracts. On one hand, she said she thinks people working under 14(c) contracts often benefit greatly from the social interaction and stable routines provided by their jobs; on the other hand, “I wish they could get paid better.”
Bowman isn’t the only one with concerns about 14(c) contracts. The Transformation to Competitive Employment Act was introduced to Congress in January 2019 and seeks to help employers using 14(c) contracts to “transform their business and program models, to support individuals with disabilities to transition to competitive integrated employment, to phase out the use of such special certificates, and for other purposes.”
However, no action has been taken on the bill since it was referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor following its introduction.
The dignity of work?
Crippes said 14(c) contracts stemmed out of initiatives from the 1930s intended to get people with disabilities into workplaces and develop skill sets.
“I think the initial goal of it was probably not terrible,” he said. “But that was also almost 100 years ago now. And where we are now, I think, is very different with how we … view people with disabilities.”
Crippes said that under a 14(c) contract an employee’s wage is determined by a productivity study that compares how efficiently an able-bodied person can do the job’s tasks to how efficiently a person with a disability can do the job’s tasks.
That wager can be anything from $5 an hour to pennies on the dollar, he said.
“The problem with this is a lot of these jobs you’ll find in what we would call sheltered workshops, kind of segregated settings where people with disabilities only work,” he said. “The struggle is these aren’t even real jobs. … Honestly, (the wage) always feels very made up to me.”
However, he noted that for some people with disabilities, earning over a particular amount of money can make them ineligible for needed benefits.
Crippes said most of the places in Utah using 14(c) contracts are businesses that provide services for people with disabilities; but as far as Ashe’s aware, any business can, in theory, have a 14(c) contract.
He said 14(c) contracts give some people the dignity of working, but they might not give people the dignity of equal pay.
“That doesn’t feel like dignity to me,” he said.
‘They do actual work’
But some family members of people with disabilities feel that 14(c) contracts are positive and important parts of their loved ones’ lives.
Sandy resident Anita Bennet said her daughter, Emily, has Down syndrome, autism and is nonverbal. She also has sensory neglect, wears orthotics due to weak knees and, because of a stroke, can’t perceive anything coming toward her on her right side.
Bennet said Emily works at the South Valley Training Company two days a week for a total of about eight hours, completing tasks like packaging products and putting together blood bags for ARUP Laboratories.
“They do actual work that has to be done. Somebody’s got to do this,” Bennet said.
She said Emily’s wages depend on how much work she can complete. Some of Emily’s peers are “significantly impaired,” Bennet said, and all of their abilities vary.
Bennet said 14(c) contract jobs aren’t just about payment, but about habilitation: a process aimed at helping people with disabilities attain or improve daily living skills.
She also said that, if someone feels they aren’t being compensated fairly under their 14(c) contract, there’s a system of recourse to address their concerns.
These jobs provide occupations for people who might otherwise not have work at all, Bennet said.
“(People with disabilities) do deserve to make as much (money as able-bodied people) if it makes sense to do it,” she said. “Businesses do have a bottom line. My daughter could never produce to the level that it would make sense to hire her (at full wages), but there are many people that can.”
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