Happy Labor Day - dropping some disability and labor rights facts for you. It is still legal to pay disabled people below minimum wage. Approximately 2,000 employers take advantage of this, paying disabled workers pennies per hour. The majority of these employers are nonprofit organizations and state agencies. The largest employer is Goodwill. This is due to a section in labor law that allows "sheltered workshops" for "job training" for people with disabilities. It is based in a charity model and 95% of workers never transition to fair community-based employment. According to DOL, only 20.8% of disabled people are employed or seeking employment (2019). That rate is of course lower for multiply marginalized disabled people. Overall, disabled people earn 68 cents per dollar compared to non-disabled workers (some studies indicate even less - this number is likely skewed). This is of course only one part of the pervasive discrimination and structural barriers to employment that disabled people face, which includes bias regarding productivity, accessibility, and impact on meager social benefits, among others. So when we say to pay disabled people, we mean it - we mean disabled people are tired of being exploited and overlooked. People deserve to be valued and protected whether or not they fit the definition of a laborer. ID: graphic with text in the center Disability and Labor Rights