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Committee forms task force to study subminimum wages for people with disabilities
Summary
The committee voted to create a task force to study subminimum wage arrangements for persons with disabilities and advanced House Bill 5607, as amended, to the floor.
After testimony and debate, the Labor and Public Employees Committee adopted an amendment to House Bill 5607 and moved the measure to the floor as amended. The amended bill creates a task force to study subminimum wage arrangements for people with disabilities and report recommendations in time for the 2027 session.
The chair said the subject is complex and “there are strong reasons on both sides of the issue,” and described the panel as a working group that will meet over the next year and a half to weigh policy options. The committee amendment adds the chairpersons and ranking members of the Joint Committee on Human Services (or their designees) and adds the commissioner of the Department of Developmental Services and the commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services or their designees to the task force.
Representative Canino spoke against the study plan, saying she feared the task force’s purpose was to eliminate the 14(c) wage certificate program that allows some employers to pay commensurate wages in group-supported employment. She warned that eliminating the program “would take away opportunities for individuals who really have no other way to spend their day besides a day program,” and that many families who use the program value the dignity and work opportunities it provides.
Representative Wilson, who said she has family members who participate in these programs, supported forming the task force to explore options carefully and ensure any policy change would avoid harming people currently employed under the program.
Action: The committee adopted the amendment by voice vote and then voted to move the bill, as amended, to the floor. The chair said the task force may or may not recommend statutory changes; it is charged to gather stakeholders and return findings for the 2027 session.
The committee emphasized that the working group is intended to include a broad set of perspectives, including people with disabilities, families and agency officials, and that the panel’s recommendations could preserve opportunities or propose reforms based on the group’s findings.
