SPRINGFIELD (WGEM) – Illinois is one step closer to requiring workers with intellection and developmental disabilities be paid the full minimum wage.
The state Senate Executive Committee passed the Dignity in Pay Act Wednesday by a 9-3 margin with bipartisan support. It now heads to the Senate floor.
“Old-fashioned stereotypes about the limit and worth of disabled lives must change,” said Ryan Croke from the Pritzker administration.
Croke, who serves as the First Assistant Deputy Governor for Health and Human Services, testified in favor of the bill.
“At its core, the Dignity in Pay Act is a civil rights and economic development that will expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Illinois,” he said.
The bill would end Illinois’s 14(c) certificate program, which allows some employers to pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage. Though administered by the federal government, Illinois lawmakers can outlaw the program from being used in the state.
“It’s a form of humanity. People deserve to be paid what they’re worth. And regardless of a disability, they should be paid the same as you or I,” said state Sen. Cristina Castro, D-Elgin, the bill’s Senate sponsor.
The programs would be phased out, eventually ending Dec. 31, 2029. To help ease the transition, the bill comes with a $2 million annual grant program administered by the Illinois Department of Human Services. A task force would provide annual progress reports on the plan’s implementation through Jan. 1, 2030, and then provide updates on the employment of people with disabilities through Jan. 1, 2035. The bill also requires that at least two current 14(c) certificate holders sit on the task force.
Despite the efforts to ease the transition, the bill’s opponents fear it could hurt the very people it’s intended to help. It could potentially put people with disabilities out of work as programs that employ them may not be able to afford to pay full minimum wage, which is set to rise to $15 per hour Jan. 1, 2025.
“Those adults at home that go to those workshops, those that live in [Community Integrated Living Arrangement Providers] or other small facilities, they aren’t going to have any job or any dignity with their pay,” said state Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy.
Tracy, state Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, and state Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, voted against the bill in committee Wednesday.
The state House of Representatives previously passed the bill May 23.
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