Testimony on Ohio House Bill 225: Fair Pay for People with Disabilities in Workshops

Summary

Written testimony dated May 19, 2025 to the Ohio Commerce and Labor Committee on Ohio House Bill 225: Fair Pay for People with Disabilities in Workshops, submitted by an Assistant Professor of Law at Cleveland State University College of Law, who states that it reflects personal opinions only. The letter urges support for the bill, which it describes as requiring that people with disabilities working in workshops be paid at least the state minimum wage. It reviews the sub-minimum wage under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act and a December 2024 U.S. Department of Labor proposal to eliminate the 14(c) program. It states that as of January 2025, 18 states had enacted legislation to end or phase out sub-minimum wages, and that the bill does not require closing workshops or eliminating services.

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May 19, 2025
Dear Commerce and Labor Committee,

Thank you for the opportunity provide testimony on Ohio House Bill 225: Fair Pay for People
with Disabilities in Workshops. My name is Dr. Laura C. Hoffman. I am an Assistant
Professor of Law at Cleveland State University College of Law where I also serve as Co-
Director of the Center for Health Law and Policy. I am an Ohio licensed attorney. My primary
legal expertise are in the areas of Health Law generally and Disability Law specifically. I am
also a nationally recognized and respected Disability Law legal scholar who has written
numerous law review and journal articles on legal issues impacting the legal rights and
protections for people with disabilities. These have included issues involving education,
employment, and healthcare access. I have previously served as a Senior Research Fellow at
Yale Law School’s Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy due to my expertise on Disability
Law issues. Finally, Iam an Ohioan with a disability. I take great pride in my state and Iam
proud that it has been a leader in using law and policy to improve the lives of people with
disabilities. All of these experiences demand that I write to most respectfully urge your support
for Ohio House Bill 225, which would require that people with disabilities working in
workshops be paid at least the state minimum wage as opposed to a sub-minimum wage.

My testimony today represents my personal opinions and not the opinions of Cleveland State
University College of Law, Cleveland State University, or any other organization with which I
am affiliated.

In 1999 at age 17, I was an inaugural delegate to the first ever Ohio Governor’s Council on
People with Disabilities Ohio Youth Leadership Forum (YLF), a state leadership program for
high school students with disabilities. It was at YLF that I met national disability rights attorney
Ted Kennedy, Jr., the Keynote Speaker that year. This was my first genuine opportunity to learn
about the importance of my legal rights as a person with a disability but also the need for people
with disabilities to become involved in advocacy, particularly, for those who may be unable to
communicate their needs. I am here today as a result of a passion that was fueled in me by this
experience and understanding that not only did my voice matter as person with a disability, but
that it was needed in a career in which I would be able to make my voice a force for legal
changes necessary to enable and empower people with disabilities to thrive in society. Because
it’s not that our disabilities are a “problem” (a medical model of disability), it is that societal
structures and conditions (a social model of disability), such as antiquated employment practices
like a sub-minimum wage, are allowed to continue to be entrenched systemically that actually
work to keep people with disabilities in a state of poverty. Further, an individual’s employment
and the benefits’ received has a direct impact on an individual’s health as a social determinant of
health that can have lifelong consequences (SDoH). See
https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health/literature-
summiaries/employment.

Background & Recent Legislative Developments
At the federal level, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was originally passed in the late 1930s
at a time when major disability laws did not exist in the U.S. The practice of allowing people
with disabilities to receive sub-minimum wages under Section 14(c) of the FLSA was at that
time a means of trying to help people with disabilities have employment by providing employers
an incentive to hire the disabled in the absence of any other federal legal protections involving
employment. Other groups also were subjected to sub-minimum wages under FLSA. However,
amendments occurred eliminating the use of sub-minimum wages for these other groups leaving
people with disabilities as the last excluded group to equity in wages in the employment context
federally. See https://time.com/7171382/disabled-americans-section-14c-subminimum-wage/,
In December 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed a Final Rule to eliminate the 14(c)
program federally that permits the use of the sub-minimum wage. See
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20241203.

The disability rights movement has significantly changed with numerous laws enacted at the
federal level to provide legal protections for people with disabilities for employment rights
through federal laws including the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990, and the Americans with Disabilities Amendment Act of 2008 to name a few. See
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/publications/fact-sheets/employment-laws-disability-and-
discrimination.

This is all to say that on the federal level, there has been immense changes in the expansion of
legal rights of people with disabilities in employment and eliminating practices that present
barriers to true equality. While the federal government has not yet eliminated the sub-minimum
wage, progress is moving in that direct and this should not serve as an indication for states to idly
stand by and wait to improve the employment situation for the disabled on the state level.
Instead, it’s an opportunity for states and a direct call to take action.

Specific to the issue of the sub-minimum wage at the state level, a national legal trend is notably
developing of numerous states passing legislation to phase out the sub-minimum wage over the
past several years. As of January 2025, 18 states have enacted legislation to end/phase out the
use of sub-minimum wages for people with disabilities. See https://www.urban.org/urban-
wire/its-legal-some-employers-pay-disabled-workers-less-minimum-wage-ending-practice-
just#:~:text=As%20o0f%20January%201%2C%202025%2C%2018%20states no%20active%201
4(c)%20programs%20in%20the™20state.

Changes have been seen for employment of people with disabilities at the state level here in Ohio
already. Ohio itself has been a leader in this respect, for example, by adopting the Employment
First model to promote the employment of people with disabilities in community settings:
https://ohioemploymentfirst.org/. The phasing out of the sub-minimum wage further advances
the employment position of people with disabilities in the State of Ohio.

Ohio House Bill 225 addresses only the issue of fair wages. It does not require the closure of
any workshops or facilities, nor does it eliminate services. Instead, it ensures that people with
disabilities receive equitable pay for their labor—just like any other worker.
Currently, many people in workshop settings are paid sub-minimum wages, sometimes
amounting to only a few cents per hour. This outdated practice does not reflect the value of their
work and is inconsistent with our state’s commitment to equality and opportunity for all
Ohioans, including Ohioans with disabilities.

By supporting Ohio House Bill 225, you are helping to create a more inclusive and respectful
workforce where every person is compensated fairly, regardless of disability. Work gives people
worth. But the fullness of that does not end just by having work per se. It means having
employment that includes having access to being paid equally for that work. There is no other
group of people in this country that makes less than minimum wage because of a “status” or
membership of a particular group than people with disabilities which not only demeans their
work/value, but sends the message they are somehow less or sub-human. Ohio can and should
continue to be a leader in protecting the legal rights and inevitably, the value, of people with
disabilities by successful passing and enacting Ohio House Bill 225: Fair Pay for People with
Disabilities in Workshops.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue and for your service to our state.

Very truly yours,

Dr. Laura C. Hoffman

Assistant Professor of Law

Co-Director, Center for Health Law and Policy

Cleveland State University College of Law

Mailing Address: 2121 Euclid Avenue, LB160 | Cleveland, Ohio 44115 -2214
E-mail: 1.c.hoffman@csuohio.edu

Phone (Office): (216) 687-4658

Phone (Cell): (216) 316-2382

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