study minimum

wage phase out

created in 2021

By Fritz Busch

Staff photo by Fritz Busch From left, New Ulm Enterprise North worthies Lucas Kjelshus, Jeff Walsh, Cody Gieseke and Collin Rueckert pose with Rep. Paul Torkelson, center, and Kristine Rueckert, far right at Enterprise North Thursday.

Staff Writer

NEW ULM — In a 2021 special legislative session, the Minnesota Legislature set up the task force to develop a plan and make recommendations to phase out payment of subminimum wages to people with disabilities on or before Aug. 1, 2025.

The task force did not choose the target date for subminimum wages to end in Minnesota. It recommended a plan to share and collect new data on the employment for people with disabilities to develop a plan on how to phase out subminimum wages if further legislation ends it.

On Thursday, Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Lake Hanksa, met with workers with disabilities at Enterprise North on North Broadway.

“I’d really like to educate some people who are on the wrong side of this,” said Rep. Torkelson. “I’m not a key player in this realm, but I know the people who are that are sympathetic to this task. The alternative is, what will these people do if these services are not available?”

Enterprise North Executive Director Dana O’Brien said 29 employees do work including cleaning, office tasks, assembly work and cleaning for a number of industries and businesses including Fastenal, Dittrich Specialties and Richardson Place in New Ulm and Koozie Group of Sleepy Eye.

O’Brien said a Minnesota bill that would have abolished less than minimum wages for people with disabilities by August 2025, but the bill was not approved last session.

O’Brien said Anoka Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, the Human Services Ranking Minority Member and Sen. and Human Services Committee Chairman John A. Hoffman, D-Champlin, led bi-partisan support to maintain sub-minimum wages for workers with disabilities.

“We operate under a federal law. The Section 14(c) certificate (of the Fair Labor Standards Act) we hold is part of a federal labor law,” said O’Brien. “There is always a push to get rid of it at the federal level. I think about 13 states have eliminated it.”

A worker who has disabilities for the job being performed is one whose earning or productive capacity is impaired by a physical or mental disability including those relating to age or disability.

Disabilities that may affect productive capacity include blindness, mental illness, developmental disabilities, cerebral palsy, alcoholism and drug addiction. The fact that a worker may have a disability is not in and of itself sufficient to warrant payment of subminimum wages.

“I think the thoughts against it are misaligned. This has gotten swept up in the push for minimum wages for all.” said an Enterprise North board member. “This is a different environment all together that needs a nurturing staff. For most people with disabilities, It’s not about money. It’s about interacting with peers.”

Other supporters talked about Enterprise North giving individuals with disabilities purpose in life by employing them and making them feel needed and wanted for being able to interact with others.