SIGH:  Fox News 23 (Tulsa) believes that ending the special subminimum wage for individuals with severe disabilities will “eliminate a hurdle to fair pay for people with disabilities.”  And so apparently do some Oklahoma legislators.  But it’s nonsense.  Eliminating the subminimum wage will eliminate jobs, not hurdles to fair pay.

When the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights did a report on this topic in 2020, we were inundated with public comments from family members of individuals with Down Syndrome.  I’m told it was more comments than we’d ever received for a single report in our history.  Overwhelmingly, the commenters wanted the subminimum wage program kept.  They knew their loved one would not have a job at all without it.  You’d think that would be obvious to more people.  But I guess the world’s gone mad.