U.S. Senator Ron Johnson says eliminating a law that allows employers to pay subminimum wage to people with disabilities would hurt clients who work for companies like Fond du Lac’s Brooke Industries. On Tuesday senator Johnson toured the manufacturing and rehabilitation center that employs individuals with a wide array of disabilities. “There are actually some liberal, progressive organizatons that want to deny individuals with disabilities the ability to socialize and have the dignity of having their own success by not allowing things like a sub-optimum minimum wage that make those types of organizations possible,” Johnson told AM 1170’s Between the Lines program. Brooke Industries can pay workers substantially below the federal minimum wage because of a provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act that permits employers who apply to the Department of Labor for a waiver to pay lower wages to people with disabilities. Many disability advocates say the law is outdated and argue no other class of people face government sanctioned wage discrimination.
