HB 225 — Interested Party, End Subminimum Wage Jobs in Ohio

Summary

Testimony on HB 225 addressed to Chair Johnson, Vice Chair Lear, Ranking Member McNally and members of the committee, ending with the name Sarah Davies. The testimony states that it is written as an interested party in HB 225 to end subminimum wage jobs in Ohio, and that all humans, regardless of ability, should be paid equitably. It states that many other states have already taken this step in refusing to pay workers less than minimum wage. It argues that people with severe and profound disabilities need opportunities to be productive and valued members of communities, and that Ohio is an employment first state.

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“HB 225 — Interested Party, End Subminimum Wage Jobs in Ohio.” Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2025-05-21-commerce-labor-testimony-testimony-8013-610cb67236/, SHA-256 4495a015183fe7d2e754a7021824d53efcf5e17bc84d0fa1a67a55b0928a2e78.

Full text

HB 225

Chair Johnson, Vice Chair Lear, Ranking Member McNally, and Esteemed members of this
committee,

I am writing this today as an interested party in HB 225—to end subminimum wage jobs in
Ohio. As the mother of a severely disabled and medically complex child, it pains me to
think that her worth and ability would be measured so lowly.

All humans, regardless of ability, should be paid equitably. One person’s time and energy
should not have a greater worth than another’s. Many other states (Alaska, Maine,
Maryland, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Colorado, California, Delaware,
Tennessee, South Carolina, and Rhode Island) have already taken this step in refusing to
pay workers less than minimum wage.

Many opponents to ending subminimum wage will argue that it allows people with the most
severe and profound disabilities to earn money—allowing them to contribute to society.
Indeed, a lot of these opponents are even parents, like me. Parents who have seen
ﬁrsthand the way that our children are often devalued by culture. I agree, wholeheartedly,
that people with severe and profound disabilities need to have opportunities to be
productive and valued members of our state and communities. However, I challenge the
idea that the way to accomplish this is by paying them mere cents for time spent working.

Parents of children and adults with disabilities have been fed a lie for years. A lie that tells
us the only path to value and belonging is within the walls of sheltered workshops, we have
been told that our children’s disabilities are too severe, too off-putting for them to have any
sort of acceptance outside of those four walls. Afraid of taking the chance of our loved
ones being rejected, we have clung to the narrative and allowed people with disabilities to
be treated as second-class citizens. We have allowed them to be segregated, and their
value reduced to what trinket they can put together for meager cents per piece.

Ohio is an employment ﬁrst state, something I acknowledge with pride. Employment can
lead to fulﬁllment and meaning in life. However, we cannot legally accept the
dehumanization of people with disabilities by continuing with an outdated method of
payment. People with disabilities deserve to be paid the same as a non-disabled person.

Additionally, while there are many great and fulﬁlling things about having a paying job, we
must not assume that this is the only path for people with disabilities to be valued and ﬁnd
belonging. It is short sighted to assume that segregation and lesser pay is the only way to
reach this goal. I do not know if my child will ever maintain a job or join the workforce like
her siblings will or her peers. I believe that my child’s value does not exist on her
employability.
We must be willing to push the boundaries of what we have been told for so long, we must
ﬁnd ways to continue to ﬁght for inclusion and community belonging, and we must not take
cheap substitutes in place of that. Ohio has come too far to allow people with disabilities
to be reduced to what they can produce for us and identify people’s gifts and strengths.
This may not always be employment. Everyone should get the opportunity to exist and be
valued for who they are, but this is not accomplished through pity pay. Give people with
disabilities the opportunity to earn a fair and equitable wage, without the disrespect of
making them work all day for a $10 check every two weeks.

We have an amazing system in Ohio that supports people with disabilities, we have
amazing providers in Ohio that work daily to ensure people with disabilities are living their
best lives and are thriving. We can ﬁnd ways to support the most severe and profound
people with disabilities without degrading the value and worth of their time. We can
continue to work towards community belonging and membership that is person-centered
to what each individual needs it to be. If we, as a system, spent our energy working towards
valued belonging as we did trying to save outdated forms of segregation—I do believe the
outcomes would positively change the way that Ohioans with disabilities are accepted into
our communities.

Thank you for your time and commitment to Ohioans with disabilities, their families, and
their communities.

Respectfully,

Sarah Davies

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