DOL increases efforts to combat exploitation of employees with disabilities

The United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently issued new guidance regarding the enforcement of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) in relation to the Rehabilitation Act. Section 14(c) of the FLSA allows employers to pay less than the Federal minimum wage to employees with disabilities only when those companies meet an array of requirements. In this way, the DOL has enhanced the pay equity and other anti-discrimination and civil rights enforcement efforts by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII, and similar laws.

The recent action by the DOL clarifies and amplifies the requirements that employers must satisfy before having authorization to pay employees with disabilities less than the minimum wage. Such requirements include that the employers must regularly provide career counseling services, information about future training opportunities, and relevant job referral services. Perhaps more significant, the governing guidance emphasizes that the DOL will aggressively pursue back wages for employees with disabilities paid less than what the law requires. Going forward, then, the DOL will prosecute wage theft and related retaliation claims -- seeking double damages in the process.