Clinton has just promised to close this unknown but harmful loophole. I’ll freely admit I didn’t even know it existed—such is the privilege of not being disabled—but I’m pleased that she came up with it in a campaign so far empty of promises to this segment of the population (well...Sanders said at one point that we should be taking guns away from the mentally unhealthy, which is problematic for some reasons despite probably good intentions. Oh, and don’t forget his “hilarious” dig at the GOP candidates being mentally ill). This goal, if implemented, will benefit some 228,000 people.
This is what she said regarding the decision:
When it comes to jobs, we've got to figure out how we get the minimum wage up and include people with disabilities in the minimum wage. There should not be a tiered wage, and right now there is a tiered wage when it comes to facilities that do provide opportunities but not at a self-sufficient wage that enables people to gain a degree of independence as far as they can go. So I want us to take a hard look at raising the minimum wage and ending the tiered minimum wages, whether it's for people with disabilities or the tipped wage. … When people talk about raising the minimum wage, they don't always talk about the legal loopholes that we have in it and I want to get rid of those and I want to get rid of that for people with disabilities too.
To me, this perfectly encapsulates Clinton’s strengths and weaknesses as a candidate. She’s frankly terrible at making sweeping promises and I think she lacks the charisma of Obama, though that opinion is starting to soften. She focuses, instead, on the nitty gritty of policies that aren’t very sexy or in the national spotlight—but they are important policies nonetheless.
I hope Sanders and the GOP candidates jump in on this. Disabled people deserve a minimum wage as much as any other American.