WIOA Restrictions on Subminimum Wage Now in Effect

The following highlights some of the changesin WIOA:

• Before a youth with a disability who is 24 or under starts subminimum wage employment, they must:
  • Receive either pre-employment transition services from their public vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency or transition services under IDEA from their school.
  • Be determined ineligible for VR services, or be accepted for VR services and be unsuccessful in achieving an employment outcome after a reasonable period of time.
  • Receive career counseling, and information and referrals from the VR agency to programs and other resources in the local area that offer employment-related services designed to help the youth attain competitive integrated employment. This must be in a manner that facilitates informed choice and independent decision-making by the youth.
  • a special wage certificate holder must review written documentation to ensure these steps have been followed, and keep a copy of this documentation on files
• schools may no longer contract or have other arrangements with holders of special wage certificates in order to pay a youth with a disability subminimum wage.
•  if an individual is currently earning subminimum wage and known to the public VR agency, 6 months after beginning employment at subminimum wage and on an annual basis thereafter, they must:
•  Receive career counseling and referral to other programs and resources to assist in pursuing competitive integrated employment.
• Be informed about the availability of self-advocacy, self-determination and peer mentoring training opportunities available in the local area, that are not provided by the entity that employs the individual at subminimum wage.