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Under Section 14(c), a special minimum wage (SMW) is always less than
the Fair Labor Standards Act minimum wage, or where applicable, the
McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act prevailing wage. A SMW is a commensurate
wage-one based on the individual productivity of the worker with a disability,
no matter how limited, compared to the productivity of experienced workers who
do not have disabilities performing the same job in the same vicinity. In order
to conduct this comparison and compute an SMW, the employer must first develop
a "standard" for each job that will be held by a worker with disabilities by
conducting work measurements of workers who do not have disabilities performing
those same jobs.
The employer must use an accepted method of industrial work measurement
to determine the standard. Such methods may include stopwatch time studies,
predetermined time systems or standard data or other recognized measurement
methods. It is imperative that the work measurement method include all aspects
of the job that will be performed by the workers with disabilities and utilize
both the quality and quantity standards developed for the job.
The commensurate rate is then determined by comparing the performance of
the worker with a disability against the “standard.” In simple terms,
if the worker with a disability is 60 percent as productive when performing a
particular job as is the experienced worker who does not have a disability
performing the identical job, the commensurate wage would be 60 percent of the
prevailing wage.
The following provide more detailed information about this topic:
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FLSA Section 14(c) Advisor |
Wage and Hour Division
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