DOL requests public comment on proposed rule ending 14(c)

DOL requests public comment on proposed rule ending 14(c)

For Immediate Release

December 9, 2024

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Labor has an opportunity to comment on a new proposed rule that will end Section 14(c) wage discrimination for employees with disabilities.

Last week the department's Wage and Hour Division announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that ends the department's issuance of new Section 14(c) certificates and a three-year phaseout for employers holding existing Section 14(c) certificates to gradually cease paying subminimum wages to workers with disabilities.

Read the NPRM posted to the Federal Register.

Since 1938, the United States has used the FLSA to shape how workers are legally paid. Section 14(c) of the law allowed business owners to legally pay certain classified workers with disabilities less than the federal standard minimum wage-known as subminimum wage employment.

You may submit comments, identified by Regulatory Information Number (RIN) 1235-AA14, electronically or by mail.

Officials invite public comment on this NPRM through the regulations.gov Federal eRulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Written submissions can be sent to:

Division of Regulations, Legislation, and Interpretation
Wage and Hour Division
U.S. Department of Labor
Room S-3502
200 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20210.

The NPRM's comment period closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on January 17, 2025.

In 2012, the agency released a report titled, National Council on Disability Report on Subminimum Wage and Supported Employment, examining the issue that legally allowed certain employers receiving certificates from the Wage and Hour Division to pay employees as little as pennies an hour for their work.

NCD's follow-up report, published in 2018 , National Disability Employment Policy, From the New Deal to the Real Deal, found no improvement to the program and reiterated our previous recommendations again calling on policymakers to phase it out.

Since publishing the reports, NCD has consistently called upon policymakers to phase-out Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, while implementing a conversion or transformation strategy that would expand opportunities to transition away from the segregated subminimum wage model perpetuated under 14(c).

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