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APSE's Voice – Final Rules on Minimum Wage
They Listened to Us!
On Wednesday, the Labor Department announced the final rule raising the minimum wage for federal contract workers. As many APSE members know, APSE strongly advocated for the inclusion of people with disabilities within the President’s Executive Order to raise the minimum wage for workers on federal service and construction contracts to $10.10 an hour. Read APSE’s Letter to the Obama Administration Letter re 14c
The Department of Labor took our advice and made some improvements to the final rule! Please see the quotes below, which were included in the Final Rule, to see how our voice can make a difference:
“The Department received many comments, including those submitted by the National Down Syndrome Congress, the Association for People Supporting EmploymentFirst (APSE), the Autism Society of America, and the World Institute on Disability, requesting that it include additional language in the contract clause set forth in Appendix A explicitly stating that workers with disabilities whose wages are calculated pursuant to special certificates issued under section 14(c) of the FLSA must be paid at least the Executive Order minimum wage (or the applicable commensurate wage rate under the certificate, if such rate is higher than the Executive Order minimum wage) for hours spent performing on or in connection with covered contracts. The Department agrees with this proposed addition to the contract clause because it helps to clarify the scope of the Executive Order’s coverage and has thus made this change to the contract clause in Appendix A.”
Read the Department of Labor’s Press Release for additional information.