CLEVELAND — For most workers across Ohio, the minimum wage is $10.10, but workers with disabilities in can legally be paid less than that.

The legislation in Ohio mirrors Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards act, which reads:

“The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides for the employment of certain individuals at wage rates below the statutory minimum. Such individuals include student-learners (vocational education students), as well as full-time students employed in retail or service establishments, agriculture, or institutions of higher education. Also included are individuals whose earning or productive capacities are impaired by a physical or mental disability, including those related to age or injury, for the work to be performed. Employment at less than the minimum wage is authorized to prevent curtailment of opportunities for employment. Such employment is permitted only under certificates issued by the Wage and Hour Division.”

Jan Dougherty, co-president of Ohio APSE, said the law was createdintending to provide more employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

“In the 1930s, when the vets were coming back from war, it was set up to rehabilitate our veterans and get them back into the workforce,” she said. “Then over time, the law had expanded through different administrations.”

Dougherty said there are currently about 5,000 people with disabilities being paid less than minimum wage in Ohio, and she and many other advocates for those workers believe it’s doing more harm than good.

“Just to see people earning such a low amount of money for all the hard work that they do,” she said. “I think all of us should be concerned about that.” 

Dougherty said some workers with disabilities are worried about making more money, for fear of reducing or losing their Medicaid benefits. 

“But we can show and cite examples across the state of Ohio, that there are people out there making $15, $16, $17 an hour and have not lost their benefits,” she said.

Brady Bartley, a 28-year-old with autism, said he’s experienced getting paid sub-minimum wage in his first job out of high school at a packaging facility. 

“I was 18, fresh out of high school, and I was getting about $4 an hour until I could end up taking a physical test,” he said.

Bartley can do most things with little or no support, but sometimes when working, he needs a little reset. 

“Go off by yourself for a little bit, take a breather and figure it out later,” he said.

Bartley and all his coworkers at his first job had disabilities, some physical and some developmental.  

He said for the first 90 days they were working; they made around $4 an hour.

“My hands were a little tied in that situation,” he said. “I needed to make money to eat, so I just had to work.”

They were required to take a productivity assessment after those first 90 days, comparing what they could accomplish to what a worker without a disability could accomplish to determine how much they would be paid. 

“Everybody had to do the test to find out how much you were worth,” Bartley said. “And that number was very often below minimum wage, like most of the time.”

Eventually, Bartley left that job in pursuit of a better-paying opportunity. 

He now works at a manufacturing company, where he earns a competitive wage.

“We make a lot of tubes,” he said. “Very specific sizing, custom. We do tons of different materials. We make stuff for open heart surgery all the way to just dynamite.”

He said his new job also accommodates his needs. 

“If you are extremely frustrated, they don't mind if you go take a break,” he said. “And I'm very grateful for that.”

Brantley said he’s happy to be making a fair wage now, but he feels he needs to stand up for the people who need more support than him and continue to make less.

“They are one of the few people that go into work because they want to be there,” he said. “But that doesn't change the fact that you can take advantage of them and pay them less than what our minimum standard is. I believe that you can't exclude a group of people just because we think they're worth less. That's not right to me.”