U.S. Department of Labor
FirstStep Employment Law Advisor
Disability Certified by DOL
Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act authorizes employers, after receiving a certificate from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, to pay special minimum wages—wages less than the Federal minimum wage—to workers who have disabilities for the work being performed. The certificate also allows the payment of wages that are less than the prevailing wage to workers who have disabilities for the work being performed on contracts subject to the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act.
A worker who has a disability 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 injury. Disabilities that may affect productive capacity include blindness, mental illness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, alcoholism, and drug addiction. See the Section 14(c) elaws Advisor for additional information.
Please note that the definitions have been adopted from various programs and may differ from the controlling statutory or regulatory definitions. Similar terms may have different meanings when used in a particular statute or regulation.
