Because of a 75-year-old section of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, companies that use sheltered workshops to train workers with disabilities, like Goodwill Industries, can legally pay their employees just a few cents an hour. The section of the Fair Labor Standards Act that legalizes this behavior must be repealed to ensure fair pay and treatment for every employee in today's workforce. To begin, I will explain the use of sheltered workshops and timed tests used to determine minimum wage for employees with disabilities. I will then discuss the history of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and how businesses use one section of the legislation to get away with paying their disabled employees so little. And finally, I will discuss the ethics behind the use of this piece of legislation and also provide a counterargument in favor of sub-minimum wage wages. Employees who earn wages below the minimum are generally employed to work in sheltered workshops. Sheltered workshops are generally set up in the back room of a company. Employee jobs in sheltered workshops often involve performing simple, repetitive tasks, such as sorting and hanging donated clothing. Sheltered workshops were initially intended to provide people with disabilities with the vocational training necessary to work in a competitive professional environment. However, today people working in sheltered workshops are usually stuck here for years and still only earn a few cents an hour. Wages below the minimum are determined by how quickly the disabled employee can complete a task compared to a non-disabled person. For example, the employee may be timed to see how many clothes he or she can hang in a minute with a limit...... middle of paper ...... than paying disabled workers less than the wage minimum is it's completely legal for businesses to do so if they receive a certificate from the federal government, but we come to the question: is it the right thing to do just because it's legal? Justin Salsbury, an employee at Goodwill Industries in Madison, Wisconsin, says, “We want everyone to understand that there is something unfair, discriminatory and immoral going on at Goodwill. » Rep. Gregg Harper, who proposed the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2013, told NBC News that "meaningful work deserves fair pay." Some go so far as to characterize wages below the minimum as exploitation of people with disabilities. Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, says: “People profit from the exploitation of workers with disabilities. This is clearly and unquestionably exploitation. » (NBC News).