Sitting at his tidy work station, one employee carefully wraps wires around a metal fishhook at the Dale Rogers Training Center in Oklahoma City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another worker, surrounded by piles of clear baggies and cardboard packaging, ties the hooks into groups of four before they get packaged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More than 80 employees with disabilities work at the center\u2019s production center, also called a sheltered workshop, doing tasks like packaging small auto parts or sorting hangers. Dale Rogers Training Center bases the workers\u2019 pay on how many tasks they complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dale Rogers Training Center, a nonprofit employment agency, runs the workshop using a federal waiver called a Section 14(c) certificate, which allows employers to pay people with disabilities below the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Congress created 14(c) waivers in the 1930s to give people with disabilities more employment opportunities. But critics of<\/a> 14(c) waivers say everyone should be paid at least minimum wage for their work.\u00a0<\/p>\n The future of the decades-old policy is uncertain. The U.S. Department of Labor spent months proposing rules to phase 14(c) certificates out, but withdrew those plans<\/a> on July 7. Still, more than a dozen states have already ended or limited the use of 14(c) waivers, according to one federal report<\/a>. Oklahoma, along with 33 other states, has not.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, Oklahoma passed legislation<\/a> this year to form a task force to study how the state could transition its more than 1,200 subminimum-wage workers into minimum wage jobs or day programs. The task force will likely begin meeting in 2026 and finalize recommendations by the end of 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n While a transition would likely move more people with disabilities into jobs with competitive wages, some providers worry they\u2019d have to shrink their programs to afford higher wages, potentially leaving behind those with the most complex disabilities. And families, who have relied on 14(c) jobs to provide structure and support, worry their loved ones won\u2019t have other options.<\/p>\n If the use of 14(c) waivers ends in Oklahoma, advocates say success will be tied to how well other services can fill in the gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sheltered workshops in Oklahoma<\/p>\n Oklahoma has 40 employers throughout the state that currently hold or have applied for a 14(c) waiver, according to U.S.Department of Labor data<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n To pay subminimum wage, employers conduct a study to determine what the standard wage would be for a job if done by a person without a disability. Then, individuals with disabilities do the same job. Depending on their speed and productivity, they are paid a percentage of that standard wage.\u00a0<\/p>\n The average wage for people working in 14(c) jobs is $4.08 an hour, according to the Department of Labor<\/a>. About 90% of these employees have an intellectual or developmental disability. Workers are meant to eventually head to higher-paying jobs, but that doesn\u2019t happen for many, advocates have said.<\/p>\n Nationally, the number of employers paying subminimum wages has dramatically decreased over the past several decades as job opportunities for people with disabilities have expanded, according to the Department of Labor<\/a>. Unemployment rates for people with disabilities reached its lowest point in 2023, though still higher than the general population, and only a small percentage of the millions of people with disabilities that are employed work for subminimum wages, according to rules proposed by the department<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n Oklahoma has spent years mulling over whether to voluntarily begin ending the use of 14(c) waivers before a federal mandate requires it. The number of people working for subminimum wages has steadily decreased in the last decade, said Mark Kinnison, the vocational rehabilitation division administrator with the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ending the use of 14(c) certificates could happen in a few ways. Employers could raise wages for current workers without having to change anything else about their programs. Service providers could create new programs or move current clients into other existing employment options. Or sheltered workshops could close or shrink available positions if providers can\u2019t handle the financial transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n Designing jobs around people\u2019s needs<\/p>\n Employers work with the government or private businesses to secure contracts, said Deborah Copeland, executive director at Dale Rogers Training Center. Employment consultants and other staff work with individuals on building skills and adapting tasks based on the person\u2019s goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n This flexibility allows for creativity in designing jobs around clients\u2019 abilities. But it also means providers in more rural areas can be limited by what the local community can support.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dale Rogers Training Center is the largest 14(c) employer in the state, but has already begun transitioning people out of subminimum wage jobs without cutting services, Copeland said. The 14(c) workshop is just one small piece of several employment programs the center offers. Other crews will work on-site at manufacturing or janitorial jobs, or screenprint shirts and make trophies on the agency\u2019s large campus in northwest Oklahoma City for at least minimum wage.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt like that if we could figure this out, we could help other people in the state figure out how to transition away from 14(c),\u201d Copeland said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But smaller programs like 4RKids in Enid say they may have to cut the number of people served if required to pay minimum wage, said Rachel McVay, executive director.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4RKids has roughly 50 individuals at any time in its sheltered workshop. The group has other businesses as well, like a mini golf course, gift shop and screenprinting. The group also runs some recreational programs, but those aren\u2019t funded with state or federal dollars, McVay said.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4RKids considered opening an adult day care center, where people can spend time outside of their homes to socialize or allow caregivers to go to work. But starting an adult day program can be complicated, and their existing building wouldn\u2019t work without costly renovations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPhasing out 14(c) makes total sense in theory. Everybody deserves to make minimum wage if they\u2019re working,\u201d McVay said. \u201cI just hope that the task force can figure out how to work with vocational sites that are servicing people that can\u2019t participate in a minimum wage job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Individuals with disabilities and their families have a choice in the programs they think will work best, said Wanda Felty, a longtime advocate for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. But those programs can be hard to find or get into, especially in more rural areas.<\/p>\n Felty has helped push for 14(c) waivers to be phased out. But she said she understands that some families worry about the safety of their loved ones in unfamiliar community-based jobs and fear they may lose access to benefits like Social Security payments or SoonerCare if they make higher wages. State officials said it\u2019s unusual for people with disabilities to suddenly lose benefits because of wages.<\/p>\n Many families are concerned about the possibility that 14(c) waivers will end and their loved ones with severe disabilities won\u2019t have options.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rebekah Reynolds\u2019 son has a severe intellectual disability, limited verbal communication and a seizure disorder. She told lawmakers at an interim study in 2023 that her son enjoyed his 14(c) job, where he\u2019s worked for more than a decade, earning about $28 every two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Without the 14(c) waiver, her son would have to find a job in the community where he\u2019d need extensive supports and likely only work a few hours a week. The rest of the time, he\u2019d either be at home or in a day care program, Reynolds said at the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor him, working where he is now with the 14(c) certificate is a viable and robust setting,\u201d Reynolds told lawmakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Funding needs<\/p>\n