Musings: Disabled workers deserve real wage
The State Capitol in Albany. This year, the State Senate passed a bill to eliminate the subminimum wage but the Assembly sat on the bill, a reader writes. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Organizations in New York can pay a person with a disability as little as 5 cents per hour and it is legal. This must end.
This subminimum wage, a relic of legislation from 1938, allows employers to pay people with a disability less than minimum wage. It is unfair and immoral.
As the father of John Cronin, a young man with Down syndrome and my cofounder of John’s Crazy Socks, we have learned that hiring people with differing abilities is not charity, it’s good business. More than half of our employees have a disability. They work hard, deliver incredible results, and earn the same wage as their colleagues.
This year, the State Senate passed a bill to eliminate the subminimum wage. The Assembly, though, sat on the bill and allowed this injustice to continue.
We have waited long enough. Next year, the New York State Legislature must change this law. There should be no exceptions. And no more second-class workers.
— Mark X. Cronin, Farmingdale
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