Nancy Stewart wants to work in an office. She successfully worked as an office assistant for six months before being laid off in downsizing, and was not able to get help finding another job. Since then, Stewart has worked in a segregated warehouse packaging car parts and labeling food for subminimum wages, earning between $10 and $40 per week. Stewart is one of approximately 13,000 Pennsylvanians with disabilities who labor in more than 100 segregated sheltered workshops, performing menial repetitive tasks, for an average of $2.40 an hour.

Stewart says, “I should be paid equal pay. I should be getting sick pay and vacation pay.” All she wants is a chance “to prove to people I can make it in the outside world.”

Stewart's story is affected by several federal laws that say she should be given the supports to work a real job. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581, 626 (1999), that services, such as employment services, must be provided to individuals with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate. In a seeming contradiction, the Fair Labor Standards Act allows sheltered workshops to pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage. More recently, in July 2014, Congress passed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) which requires people under the age of 24 have the opportunity to work in the community before starting subminimum wage work. WIOA also requires Stewart and her peers receive employment counseling and information on an annual basis. Finally, in January 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule requiring services funded by Medicaid waivers, such as the prevocational (or pre-employment) services provided to Stewart in the sheltered workshop, be provided in integrated settings.