Wyden Cosponsors Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Fair Pay for Workers with Disabilities

Wyden Cosponsors Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Fair Pay for Workers with Disabilities

Letter co-signed by Wyden also presses Trump administration to end its plan to reinstate subminimum wage for disabled workers

Washington, D.C. - Senator Ron Wyden said today that he has cosponsored bipartisan legislation that would end subminimum wage and prohibit employers from under-paying workers with disabilities.

Under current law, employers are able to under-pay workers with disabilities below the federal minimum wage. The Biden administration previously issued a proposed rule prohibiting this practice. In July, the Trump administration announced its plans to withdraw that proposed Biden-era rule, allowing employers to return to the practice of paying subminimum wage to workers with disabilities. The Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act would codify the proposed Biden-era rule, outlawing subminimum wage for disabled workers.

"No one should ever be denied a fair wage because of a disability," Wyden said. "Equal work deserves equal pay. This legislation will bring our outdated laws into the 21st century by protecting workers with disabilities against unfair labor practices and ensuring all workers get the pay they're owed."

Wyden also joined a letter led by Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez Chavez-DeRemer calling on the Trump administration to reverse its plans to overturn the rule prohibiting subminimum wage.

"As long as the subminimum wage program is allowed to continue, people with disabilities are denied their fundamental right to equal opportunity by being paid less than half the federal minimum wage on average with some making pennies per hour," the senators wrote to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

Legislative text can be found here.

The text of the letter is here.