“Bottom Dollars” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: The following film features audio description. Listen for this voice for description of important visuals and titles that appear in the film. [slow electronic music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Animated Rooted in Rights logo. A tree grows out of the word "rooted" as roots grow in the word "rights", with the slogan "disability rights are human rights" beneath it. [NARRATOR]: Chapter one - "Excellent worker." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The skyline of Rochester, New York. Minimum wage $9.70 per hour. MELANIE: My name is Melanie Oyer, and I work for the Center for Disability Rights. I met Gloria about two years ago, she is one of my clients. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A photo of Melanie and Gloria together, smiling. MELANIE: She works at a site for people with disabilities, sorting items, working with little objects, putting plastic parts together. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Gloria Marrero uses sign language. GLORIA (from ASL): I worked there for eight years. MELANIE: Her work always talks about how great an employee she is. She's reliable, she's friendly, she's always on time, she never misses work. GLORIA: Yeah they tell me I'm a good worker, my boss loves me. MELANIE: They have specific categories that they evaluate her on, and the best is four out of four, and she received a four out of four on about 20 different categories. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Gloria's work records. (MELANIE): In one category it says, "Independent Work Rate," and it says, "Excellent worker, on average makes $3.50 an hour." [continuous cello tone] MELANIE: Gloria is the only excellent worker that I know that makes $3.50 an hour. GLORIA: No, it's not fair. (MELANIE): In my opinion, the only reason why an employer would pay somebody so low that's an excellent worker is because it's legal. [driving electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Rooted in Rights presents... AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Film footage of factory workers from the 1930s. (NBC NEWS ANNOUNCER): Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: My friends... AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Families gathered around their radios to listen. ROOSEVELT: After many requests on my part, the Congress passed a Fair Labor Standards Act. That act sets a floor below wages. MARK: I'm Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. The Fair Labor Standards Act is a Civil Rights statute, and it provides protections to Americans in the workforce. The minimum wage guarantee was revolutionary. If you were going to take a job, you know what the floor is. (ROOSEVELT): It is the most far-sighted program for the benefit of workers that has ever been adopted, here or in any other country. MARK: But the minimum wage is offered to everybody, except for people with disabilities. CHERYL: I am Cheryl Bates-Harris, I'm the Senior Disability Advocacy Specialist with the National Disability Rights Network. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was passed in 1938, there's a section of law called section 14(c). AUDIO DESCRIPTION: 14(c) certificates. MARK: Employers who have a 14(c) certificate pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage simply based on the fact that they have a disability. So, sub-minimum wage is a term we sometimes use to describe paying people with disabilities a different wage from everybody else. CHERYL: It's intended to be able to give employers the opportunity to hire wounded veterans returning from war. That provision of law was little known and little utilized until sheltered workshops began to flourish in the 50s and the 60s. Sheltered workshop is a congregate facility where people with disabilities go for a period of time during the day. It's very boring, it's shredding newspapers, it's counting nuts, bolts, and screws for packaging. They started for the right reason 50, 60 years ago because parents were keeping their children out of institutions and needed somewhere for them to go during the day. But they've since become an outdated model of segregation. [fast-tempo drum beat] [NARRATOR]: 2016 - 241,265 people with disabilities are paid less than the minimum wage. CHERYL: Statistics show that people with disabilities are at least twice as likely to live below the poverty line. [slow electronic music] CHERYL: And poverty, I do not believe, is the American dream that we have for our sons and our daughters or our family members, with or without a disability. [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars Chapter two - "Even when you hustle..." [slow electronic music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A river runs through the small town of Tiffin, Ohio. Minimum wage $8.15 per hour. PAMELA: My name's Pamela Steward. I like to sew, like to walk, like to go shopping and out to eat. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela sewing. (PAMELA): I embroider pillowcases and pass them out to friends and family members. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: She holds up an embroidered pillow. PAMELA: I have a learning disability as of to math, reading, and spelling. I work at Seneca Re-Ad, I work there full time. I've been there for six years. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Barbara's service dog next to her at a conference table. BARBARA: My name is Barbara Corner. I'm an attorney, and I'm also the employment team leader here at Disability Rights Ohio. The Seneca Re-Ad is a sheltered workshop. It basically has one major contract with Roppe, a multimillion-dollar corporation that provides flooring-- tile and flooring, more or less for commercial establishments, and so they contract with Seneca County and with this workshop to provide the tile samples. PAMELA: We sort them, make sure the print's coming out alright, and then if the print's not coming out alright we'll throw them away, and if the print's coming out alright we'll go ahead and chain them. BARBARA: There are other jobs at the workshop, like for instance, Pam has done the saw where she has used a machine to cut holes, and there's an autoprint that-- which is another machine that prints a pattern on the tiles, so it is, in a lot of ways, light industry. PAMELA: I was probably only getting about three-something an hour. BARBARA: Way below what the wages were for people in light industries, which could be up to 11 to 13 dollars an hour. PAMELA: I don't feel that it's right that one person gets paid better than the other. I feel like we should all be paid the same. [upbeat electronic music] (CHERYL): Section 14(c) allows employers to pay individuals based on their productivity. MARK: The idea is to compare the productivity of a person with a disability to a non-disabled person. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The graphic illustrates Time Studies. (CHERYL): Let's say that we were a widget manufacturer, and they test three individuals without disabilities, and they can make nine widgets an hour, 10 widgets an hour, and 11 widgets an hour. Then the expectation would be that the norm would be the average of 10 widgets an hour. A person with a disability trying to make to widgets, and he only makes five widgets in an hour. He would therefore be paid 50% of the prevailing wage since he was only producing 50% of the work. But, if a non-disabled worker also only made five widgets an hour, he would still be paid 100% of the wage, because he benefits from the minimal wage protections. MARK: What happens is, people with disabilities are held to a productivity standard while everybody else is guaranteed a wage regardless of how productive they are or not, so basically every person with a disability has to hustle, or you're out of luck, and, even when you hustle, you're not guaranteed the minimum that everybody else gets. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela embroiders a pillowcase. BARBARA: When they tested our clients, they didn't use the exact same testing conditions as for people without disabilities, so that test wasn't fair. PAMELA: I got held up by people slowing me down on the other side, I had to wait for them to bring jigs over to me so I could actually put the pieces on the jigs. Sometimes they'd slow around and not bring the jigs over so the job could be done. I was relying on other people, and I don't feel at all I was tested right. MARK: The Department of Labor has responsibility for monitoring the 14(c) certificates, but there are a lot of them out there, there are a lot of people with disabilities, and there's a limited amount of capacity at the Department of Labor to monitor, so it's the employers are expected to fill out the papers and expected to do it correctly and expected to tell the truth. BARBARA: From what we found out, the Department of Labor basically just looks at the paper certificate, and doesn't do any further investigation. That's why things have just continued the same way they've been for decades. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela cleans her apartment as her cat watches. PAMELA: When I'm working, I feel that I should be paid as an equal person. “Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 03” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: Chapter three - "Pennies per hour." [sad piano music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Row houses line the street of Baltimore, Maryland. Minimum wage $8.75 per hour. CHARLES: There's no reason to pay us less than the minimum wage. I'm Charles Biebl, I'm from Baltimore, Maryland. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles leaves his house using his white cane. CHARLES: I went to the school for the blind all through high school. I was very enthused about working, I wanted to work, and it certainly wasn't what I hoped it would have been. They wanted to throw me in a workshop, a sheltered workshop, and forget about me, and that's what they basically did. CHERYL: I think they persist for a number of reasons. Number one, they're well-funded. [driving electronic music] (CHERYL): There's a pre-vocational service under Medicaid that basically pays for people to go somewhere for seven or eight hours a day. The provider agency is being paid for their mere presence in the workshop, usually on a daily basis. There is a program called AbilityOne. Because the federal government is the largest purchaser of goods and services, this program gives preferential contracts to organizations that employ people with significant disabilities. So, these service providers can basically be guaranteed a lifelong contract. MARK: So, you get all these government programs that really create a great incentive for employers, with the theory that they're there to help people with disabilities, but when you add them all up, they simply serve to shelter people with disabilities and to keep them limited in what they can do. CHERYL: As the providers have gotten more sophisticated, and actually say that they want to teach people job skills. They look to businesses in the community to provide work to them. (MARK): Of course you can pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage, so you have a built-in competitive advantage to the price of the workforce that you provide. CHARLES: They had contracts like that, of course the workshop would bid on different items, and of course the workshop would say they'll do it for this price, and Western Electric would say, "Okay, we'll give you the work then, since you're the lowest bidder." CHERYL: The companies, we believe, are getting a very good deal. [NARRATOR]: Companies that work with employment agencies that hold 14(c) certificates Vons Boeing The Home Depot The Medicine Shop Merriam-Webster Walgreens 3M Best Western Pizza Hut CHERYL: The workshop is getting a lot of money, paying on average under $2 an hour across the country. [quiet atmospheric music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Roy Rocha. Bakersfield, California. ROY: And they go, "Okay, let's see how fast you can take a phone apart." I start taking phones apart real quick, and they go, "Oh man, you do it pretty quick," and all this stuff, and I said, "Man, I gonna miss no days, and I'm gonna see how much my first paycheck is." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: James Meadours. San Antonio, Texas. JAMES: When I was in Oklahoma, I was there a short time in my high school, and they said, "We got a job for you." I said, "Cool, a job!" And when I saw my first paycheck, I said, "That's not right!" ROY: And then two weeks came, they were passing out payroll at the program. And I opened it, I go, "$15?" And I took it to the supervisor, I go, "What happened? I didn't miss no days, how come my check's only $15?" JAMES: It was only $7.70. And then I look at the rate, they said it's 50 cents an hour, I said, "Oh my God!" AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Betty Williams. Indianapolis, Indiana. BETTY: How would you like to go into a sheltered workshop and work for two weeks and come out with a $6 check? That happened to me more than once. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A vintage film of Goodwill Industries showing workers in their workshop. (ANNOUNCER): It's spring, and again the rush is on for the Goodwill Industries. Let's leave the customers for a moment while we inspect the operation of this splendid social service agency. CHARLES: When I used to work at Goodwill, that was a same thing kind of a deal. Some people would make maybe 10, 15, 20 dollars a week. MARK: Well, Goodwill is one of the largest employers, and I would say exploiters, of the provisions under the law that permit people with disabilities to be paid less than the minimum wage. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The Center for Disability Rights. Stephanie works at her desk, seated in her wheelchair. STEPHANIE: I'm Stephanie Woodward, I'm the Director of Advocacy at the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester, New York. We just did a FOIA request from Goodwill. We did Goodwill nationally, for all of their wages. [percussive music] [NARRATOR]: Goodwill hourly wages Grand Island, Nebraska $2.53 per hour Birmingham, Alabama $1.51 per hour Branford, Connecticut $0.40 per hour Cincinnati, Ohio $0.02 per hour STEPHANIE: We found that can be as low as two cents an hour. (INTERVIEWER): Two cents an hour? STEPHANIE: Two cents. MARK: The management is making very, very significant six figure salaries, and they say then that they can't afford to pay people with disabilities a minimum wage. CHERYL: Provider agencies have told us that if they had to pay half of minimum wage that they would probably go bankrupt. [NARRATOR]: CEO Annual Salaries Opportunity Partners, Inc., Minnetonka, Minnesota $198,693 CW Resources, New Britain, Connecticut $293,764 Ohio Valley Goodwill, Cincinnati, Ohio $342,069 Goodwill Industries of Orange County, Santa Anna, California $352,338 Pride Industries Inc., Roseville, California $361,578 Elwyn Inc., Elwyn, Pennsylvania $400,065 Goodwill National, Rockville, Maryland $565,925 AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of Jim Gibbons, CEO of Goodwill. MARK: Quite ironic that the CEO of Goodwill, who is a blind person, thinks that other people with disabilities don't deserve a basic level of equality, and I don't know how you resolve that in your own mind as a person with a disability, except that you don't believe in the concept of equality and civil rights. CHARLES: These places had a vested interest in keeping people there, especially those who could produce. [sad piano music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles walks into a convenience store. CHARLES: You may say, "Well, why didn't you quit?" Well, there was nowhere else to go. Western Electric never thought about hiring people like myself to do it, and I would have done very well at it. But they would have had to pay me like everybody else, and they didn't wanna do that. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles buys a lottery ticket. (CHARLES): I'm poor now, and I gotta carry that to my grave. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles holds up his Mega Millions ticket. CHARLES: If I win, wouldn't that be nice? I spent years doing this stuff in the sheltered workshops, but it really didn't prepare me for anything, they lied to us and said that it would. I was basically sold a bill of goods. [gentle plucking music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter four - "Been down there too long." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A trailer home in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. TILLMAN: My name is Tillman Mitchell, and I live in Vicksburg, Mississippi, with my mom and my little brother. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dorothy holds up a family photo. DOROTHY: My name's Dorothy Mitchell, Tillman's my son. Grew up, real nice kid, graduated and everything from high school. It was after graduation, about, think a couple of months later, they signed him up for Midd West, and they started him out there. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A 14(c) certificate for Midd West. JOAN: My name is Joan Farish, I work at Midd West Industries. It is a sheltered workshop. Participants are actually able to come on site every day, and they work, we recycle paper and plastics. DOROTHY: I said, "Well, that's nice, he'll be able to get out the house, won't have to sit around the house all the time." He find something to do with hisself. TILLMAN: It's okay. (INTERVIEWER): Why is it only okay? AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman closes his eyes and looks down. [Tillman hums contemplatively] TILLMAN: It's just, it's okay. [NARRATOR]: School transition plan. CHERYL: Schools are supposed to develop a transition plan for individuals with disabilities, so that when they exit the school system they either go to work or some other appropriate post-school activities. We know from our work doing sheltered workshop monitoring around the country that most of these individuals go directly from the school system to the sheltered workshop. MARK: As soon as they get ready to graduate, we give them an opportunity through the transition programs to go tour the sheltered workshop and say, "Look at this, this is great." STEPHANIE: You'll see the richer high schools have so many more resources, and then the poorer areas... What do we do? Oh, sheltered workshop. CHERYL: So their thinking is that if they go to the sheltered workshop, they will get the services and supports that they need there to move into post-school activities. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. What they end up with is a sub-minimum wage job in a segregated setting without the opportunity to talk about real work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Jackson, Mississippi. LE'RON: My name is Le'Ron Jackson. When I was in the sheltered workshop, they had me bending over, putting clothes in a barrel. I have CP, so I couldn't bend over and then get myself back up. It took me a while to get myself back up, or I had to ask somebody to get me up so I could reposition myself and then pick up some clothing, and then bend back down to put it in the barrel. That's real demeaning. When they matched me up with the workshop, it was supposed to be just for a limited time, but as you can see, some people get stuck. STEPHANIE: Looking at the reality, you will find someone in a sheltered workshop today who's been in that same sheltered workshop for years. So if this is a job training program, I'm not sure how long it takes to train someone, but I think it's a bit excessive. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman's trailer home. TILLMAN: I went, I worked at Midd West 15 years. The first job I had, and I've been down there too long. DOROTHY: So they said they was gonna find him a job, and they did that. (INTERVIEWER): When did they say they were gonna find him a job? DOROTHY: Uh..they started last year, looking for him one. TILLMAN: I went down for my interview, they told me I got a job, and then I liked it. I clean up. Sweep, vacuum the floor, and then wipe down the vending area, pull the trash. And I love it because I like to work out in the community, make good friends, new people, get paid more money, $7.25 an hour. Help my family and them out. [gentle plucking music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman vacuuming the floor at a hotel. Timeline shows Tillman's training in a sheltered workshop leading to a part-time job after 15 years. (INTERVIEWER): So why did it take 15 years for Tillman? DOROTHY: I have no idea. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman takes out the hotel's trash. DOROTHY: Wish they would've had started training him in school to do things like this, how to go out and get a job on your own, probably could have gotten one right after. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman wipes down the soda machine. MARK: We've set up a pipeline to sheltered employment that starts at a very young age, where we start working with children with disabilities and telling them how limited they are. STEPHANIE: Well, there's a ton of alternatives. We could start with a transition plan that-- with teachers and parents all getting together and understanding that this person has more value than 25 cents. [cheery bell music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A two-story house in South Hampton, New Hampshire. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. Sara Frost. SARA: I am Sara, I am 23 years old, almost 24. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara commutes to work by train early in the morning. (SARA): I'm in the shipping and receiving at the Boston Children's Hospital. When we first get there, we will have our meetings, then we'll start delivering all the packages, all 13 floors. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara pulls a cart of boxes through the hallway in fast motion. (SARA): It's super busy all day. It is a tough job, but, doing pretty awesome. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara's house. (SCOTT): My name is Scott Frost. ROBIN: I'm Robin Frost, we are Sara's parents, yep. We live in this little town on the seacoast of New Hampshire, which you could basically throw a rock and hit Massachusetts. Though Sara was in this community, she wasn't part of it, she didn't have any friends, she wasn't-- she was never picked for any teams, she-- small school, everyone would get off the bus to go to a birthday party, and she was still sitting on the school bus, and, she got that, and granted, Sara has more advantages, the end of the day, she does have disabilities. I felt that she deserved more, and I could do better. (TONYA): My name's Tonya Hart Newkirk, and I am the PDMS Account Manager for One Sky, and I also am a Service Coordinator. Sara has some real goals ever since she was little, I think around the age nine or 10 is when she started talking, and one of the things she always talked about was really wanting to work at a hospital, specifically Children's in Boston, and we have our transition team here at One Sky that works with adults, starting at age 14 until they turn 21, so that transition team and the high school had brought this program to Sara and her family's attention, and they all had decided that that would be a good fit for Sara. ROBIN: One Sky Community Services did support her with what they called vocational training, more vocational training, and then still wanting just a little bit more, we sent her to the Institute of Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Mass., and there is where she did her internship at Children's, and then was hired by Children's. SARA: If I didn't have any access to those programs, I'll be just sitting at home doing nothing. And I don't like doing nothing all day. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Timeline showing Tillman's 15 years at a sheltered workshop. Below, a second timeline shows Sara's internships leading to a full-time job in only five years. A coworker slides a heavy box to Sara. COWORKER: Can you handle it? SARA: Yes. COWORKER: I know you can. SARA: I am super proud of my job because I love being at my job, getting me going. [gentle plucking music] SARA: See you tomorrow. (COWORKER): Alright, Sara. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara wheels her cart out of the mailroom. JOAN: When our kids get out of school, a lot of them, where else do they have to go but to come to the workshop, because they have an opportunity to learn, to be trained. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman holds up a photo of himself at graduation. LE'RON: When I was in the sheltered workshop, they told me, "Well, this getting you ready for a job." I said, "I'm already ready for a job." [atmospheric music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter five - "My mother didn't think I could do it..." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A green lawn in front of the Capitol building in Olympia, Washington. Minimum wage $11.00 per hour. Hugh Bertolin walks down the street. HUGH: I'm Hugh Bertolin, I used to work at Morningside sheltered workshop, I was making less than minimum wage. (INTERVIEWER): And how long did you work at the sheltered workshop? HUGH: About 15, yeah, about 15 years. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A sign reading, "Morningside, Everybody Works Everybody Wins." JIM: My name is Jim Larson, and I'm the CEO of Morningside. Morningside's always been a very successful program, and a very innovative program, but I think, while we say we focus on the individual, early on in our history through sheltered employment, I'm not sure if that's true. A professor at the University of Oregon brought up his students and they did a survey of all of our [people] in sheltered employment. So, 80% of the people wanted to work in the community, and we had about 20% of the people indicated that maybe staying there or something else would have been better for them. First you're kind of shocked, saying, "80%? That's a lot, I was sure more people would wanna be here." But that's the only option they had, and I think that's the other thing with choice, so if you only have one choice, what are your options? What is your exposure to work? You don't have any exposure to work. So, it seems to me that when you have that exposure and that choice, then there's other options than going to a sheltered workshop. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh waits to cross the street. Disability Rights Washington sign. SUSAN: My name is Susan Kas, and I'm a staff attorney at Disability Rights Washington. The whole concept of a sheltered workshop was based on a charitable notion and a notion of giving people opportunities that didn't otherwise exist, and so it has roots that run deep and have been around for several decades. The call to end sub-minimum wage, and to end the practice of sheltered work, is a call that almost universally is to transition, and to phase out this practice. (JIM): Well, 2004 was a real exciting time here at Morningside, it's 'cause we had a celebration on June 24th to close the sheltered workshop, and we called it 'Bridge to the Community celebration’, and so it was a culmination of really a five-year plan to close the sheltered workshop. So out of the 120 people in sheltered employment, we found spots for most everybody. Hugh Bertolin was one of our first people that got placed out of our sheltered workshop program. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh approaches an Albertsons store. HUGH: I was hoping I could be like a courtesy clerk, and then I finally became a courtesy clerk at Albertsons. Morningside got it for me. I like bagging the groceries, I have some friends there who I see, our customers, I see my fellow workers. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh chats with his coworker. (HUGH): I work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. (INTERVIEWER): How long have you worked there? HUGH: 19 years. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh smiles while standing under the Albertsons sign. JIM: And there's probably eight people or so that didn't make a transition. Of the eight, six people were referred to a community access program, and I think two people decided to retire. And of the six or so people that we found another option for, all of the parents, all of the parents were upset at me. MARK: Parents of people with disabilities, I think, are the group that this subject is hardest for. I feel bad that we have not gotten to them earlier, that they have thought the notion that this model of, quote, work, is really the thing that defines what the future can be like for their child. HUGH: Well, my mother didn't think I could do it. But I did. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh bags groceries. JIM: Having somebody sit all day, putting together a nut and a bolt, isn't necessarily a positive thing, in my opinion. Matter of fact, I think oftentimes that had a more detrimental effect on a client than it had a positive effect. 'Cause oftentimes our people didn't wanna be there, they knew it wasn't real work, they weren't getting paid for it, or paid appropriately for it, and it causes a lot of issues. [gentle guitar strumming] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Desert landscape in Galllup, New Mexico. Minimum wage $7.50 per hour. DEXTER: My name is Dexter Smith. I listen to old country music. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dexter browses music. DEXTER: Sometimes I like to go to rodeo. That's all I do. I used to be working in a workshop, like buttons, janitorial. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dexter walks through a dry yard. Downtown Gallup. YOLANDA: My name is Yolanda Sandoval-Nez, and I'm a Senior Advocate with the Native American Disability Law Center. For Navajo especially, is that families aren't well familiar, or I guess you could say they're not educated to where they can guide the kids to different opportunities, but it doesn't mean that they don't love them. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Wide shots of the dry New Mexico landscape. YOLANDA: I think the families did here the best that they can. I was able to go to these sheltered workshops and tell these individuals that you do have rights, you have a right to go and explore. You don't have to stay in a sheltered workshop. Dexter's one I worked with. DEXTER: I work at Walmart, pushing cart. Sometimes helping people. I love my job, it's pretty good. YOLANDA: With sheltered workshops you're kind of held to a level where they think you can't do very much, but I think when Dexter went out in the community, it gave him that opportunity to explore a lot more than when they were kind of left in a sheltered workshop. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dexter smiles as he drives an electric shopping cart through the parking lot. [NARRATOR]: Supported employment. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Cheryl Bates-Harris from National Disability Rights Network. CHERYL: Supported employment has been around for almost 30 years, and supported employment was a model where you identify an appropriate job and you place the individual on the job and then train them as to how to perform specific tasks for that job, using supports that could include a job coach. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Theresa watches Dexter as he works at Walmart. THERESA: My name is Theresa Jim, I'm the job coach for Dexter Smith. A job coach means the individuals are working out in the community. I have to coach them to monitor and make sure they do their task. He does a really good job, he's a hard-working person, doesn't call in sick, he keeps himself busy, and he likes to help out customers and his coworkers. DEXTER: I get paid every Thursday. Every Thursday, that's when I get paid. Just put it back in the bank, for myself, I've got a banking account. JIM: When I brought these business leaders together and talked to them about closing the sheltered workshop, somebody said, "Well, you need to have a sheltered workshop." And these are people that were social workers in the community, and people in the medical profession. "Well, you need a sheltered workshop. What else are they gonna do?" Well, I had to really explain to them that everybody can work. Maybe work isn't a program for somebody, and that's fine, maybe work-- while I think everybody can get a job, there are some people that don't wanna work. If they wanna work, then our job is to find them a job. Last year we placed over 200 people in jobs, which is a huge number. SUSAN: If we want to phase out sheltered work because we don't believe it has a place in our modern economy, then we have to make our modern economy make a place for people with disabilities to work and contribute and earn a living the same way as everyone else. [energetic electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter six - "Yes, there were a lot." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A van drives down a tree-covered street in Portland, Oregon. Minimum wage $10.25 per hour. ANDY (VIA IPAD): My name is Andy Owens. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy is in his wheelchair, using an iPad to speak. ANDY: A lot of kids I went to school with went into sheltered workshops when they graduated and left school. I said, "No way for me!" I was not going to go there. I started my job five days after school got out. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy smiles and points forward as his assistant pushes his wheelchair. ANDY: I work at Powell's Bookstore. I will have worked there for 15 years in June 2016. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy arrives at his workstation among countless shelves of books. CYNTHIA: I am Cynthia Owens, and I am Andy's mom. He had a near-drowning accident, which caused traumatic brain injury. It's also called acquired cerebral palsy because he was so young when he had that happen. He was in a coma for seven months after his accident, and then in the hospital for about two and a half years. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of Andy as a baby, smiling. A tube is attached to his neck. CYNTHIA: The doctors didn't give me very much hope for him. They said, "You know, if he comes out of the coma, or when he comes out of the coma, he'll be a vegetable," and that was the word they used. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of Andy as a young man, smiling. CYNTHIA: And I know all of those doctors are probably retired now, but I'd someday like to just show them what the results of all of that was. ANDY: My mom had a person centered plan done while I was in high school. We came up with all the strengths, gifts, and talents I have. Yes, there were a lot. [NARRATOR]: Person centered plan. CYNTHIA: A person centered plan is when you're really focusing on the individual, you have a facilitator of that person centered plan who knows how to do that. You'd usually try to get a group of people together who know the individual well, who can help create a plan that has a lot of positiveness to the plan, so you're looking for strengths, you're looking for what gifts they bring, you do look at their challenges. ANDY: We narrowed it down to things I might be able to do using switches. We knew I could control my head and that I could use a switch, then we just needed to find a job that I could do requiring a switch. CYNTHIA: With a person centered plan, you've got a list of things that a job developer or a job coach could take with them to really go out there and try to help that individual find a job. They approached Powell's, which-- you know, they went into Powell's, they saw how Powell's scans the books with the barcodes when people buy these, and what they had to do when they were selling them in the store. They talked to them about, "Gosh, we've got this individual who would be really interested in working." ANDY: I am good at my job. Powell's knows I am a dependable employee. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy in front of his workstation. His assistant operates the computer. Adam Henry, Andy's assistant. ADAM: I've been working with Andy full time for about a month and a half now. When we're at work, I log him in, read his emails, and then I get his iPad ready 'cause he likes to listen to music while we're working. ANDY: I scan inventory to be shipped to stores for online pickup. ADAM: His head switch comes in right here, he's got a little battery pack here that powers his head switches. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Adam points out wires that run from Andy's wheelchair to a computer-controlled conveyor belt. ANDY: When I am processing the books, I use assistive technology to help me do what I cannot do physically. I use sensitive head switches that control my book loader and conveyor belt. The loader puts the books onto the conveyor belt, which brings them to the scanner in front of me. It scans the barcode on the pricing label, I verify the information on the screen while my assistant offloads the books. The books are then taken to the shipping department. CYNTHIA: He saw his older brother and sister go to work at his age, and that's what he wanted, he wanted to go to work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy advances his book loader with his head switch. ANDY: I earn $13.95 an hour. CYNTHIA: Which is considerably higher than minimum wage. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Adam points to a calendar with the number of books for each day. (ADAM): Last year Andy processed 53,758 books. CYNTHIA: I realize that there's a lot of families who may not have opportunity with time to be able to do what we've done. This was not something anybody really taught me, it was something that we really had to go figure out, it was a lot of trial and error. CHERYL: We know how to support people in employment, we know how to get people with significant disabilities jobs, we're just not spending the money on doing it properly. [NARRATOR]: Vocational Rehabilitation. CHERYL: Vocational Rehabilitation gets money specifically to provide services to people with disabilities, so that they can obtain, maintain, or regain employment consistent with their abilities, strengths, interests, and priorities. CYNTHIA: A lot of what we've gotten has been paid for by Vocational Rehabilitation. CHERYL: There's no question that the return on investment for individuals who actually get real jobs and real wages is great. [energetic electronic music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy and his friends at a bowling alley. ANDY: I want to work because I earn a paycheck, buy things, have friends, pay taxes, get a discount on all the books I want, and feel useful. I value my job and know how I lucky I am to have a great job. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A ramp is next to his wheelchair, allowing him to push a bowling ball into the lane. CYNTHIA: I think what Andy has taught me is that I can't hold him back, and that's what I was doing when I didn't think that he could do these things. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: after knocking down nine pins, Andy smiles. [mid-tempo electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter seven - "The Joe-Hawk." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe skis down the ski slope. Joe skis by, giving two thumbs up. Joe uses an iPad to speak. JOE (VIA IPAD): My name is Joe Steffy. I own Poppin Joe's Kettle Corn. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A banner reads, "I love Poppin Joe's." Joe dumps the kettle corn popper. (JOE): As a business owner, I must be able to produce every type of popcorn product that I sell and complete the daily business tasks. This includes the weekly deliveries. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe places bags of his popcorn on shelves in a small store. JOE: I am always active and love being busy. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe looks up from his iPad and gives a thumbs up. Joe plays a bell in his church choir and then plays basketball with E.R. E.R.: My name is E.R., he's my uncle. I live with him and I help take care of him. The Joe-Hawk, yeah, he's-- everywhere he goes he'll go like this, and he wants everyone to know that he has a Joe-Hawk. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: E.R. rubs the center of his head in reference to Joe's mohawk. Joe shoots and makes two baskets in a row. The rolling hills of Louisburg, Kansas. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. JOE: I was 14 years old, my parents and I met with my school transition team. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Ray and Janet Steffy. RAY: And basically what they told us was, "We don't know why we need to set up a plan," and that basically, "Joe has no attention span, he can't keep on task, he probably-- he will never hold a job, so why do we need to make a plan?" AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photos of Joe as a younger man. JOE: You know the greatest disability there is? It is low expectation. They had no expectations for me. JANET: We were known as parents with great expectations, that were in denial of how serious the disabilities were that we were facing. RAY: This ticked me off, in that I was going to prove to these people my son could work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe pours out popcorn from a kettle. RAY: There was a workshop, and we went in there to observe what they did and that kind of thing. And basically, what we saw in there wasn't what we wanted Joe to go through, and basically not get paid for doing it anyways. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The Kansas farm. Cattle grazing in the background. (JANET): I grew up on a farm, we milked cows, there were cows there, there were chickens there, and so there was a lot to do. You knew where you fit in. So, I expected that out of my kids. (RAY): We needed to find something that we could do as a family. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe, Ray, and E.R. working in the backyard. RAY: We didn't even know what kettle corn was at that time. We went on a cruise to Alaska, and it was in Anchorage, Alaska, on a Saturday during market day, and there was this business there that was popping popcorn. We watched them pop and sell and everything, and there was a variety of jobs within the business. You could pop the corn, you could bag the corn, you could help sell the corn, all those were different phases. Well I thought this would be ideal for Joe, because when he got tired of one, he could move to another one, whichever one he wanted to do. JOE: I learned by watching and would do exactly as I saw it done. RAY: Which comes down to what customized employment is. [NARRATOR]: Customized employment. (RAY): Janet went to classes to learn how to write a business plan. We submitted that to the DD Council in Kansas, which-- at that time they were supporting people starting their own business, so they gave him all new equipment. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe making, bagging, and delivering the kettle corn. RAY: And then we went to Social Security through their PASS Plan. They supported the finances of his business by giving him cashflow money to make the business work for an 18-month period of time, and then we also got equipment from the vocational rehab people for a computer and a printer to make labels. And so that's how we got started, and it became-- on the fifth day of April in 2005, the business became Joe's business, and he was the sole proprietor of that business, and has been 'til this day. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of Joe proudly holding papers in his hand. RAY: We help manage the business. People say, "Well, how does he do his accounting?" Well, like any other business. If you don't do accounting, then you hire an accountant. So that's what we do, we hire the people that are needed to run specific parts of the business. But basically, Joe is the owner of the business. [soft uplifting music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe and Ray wear matching tie-dye bandanas as they work at a stand selling popcorn. JOE: Festivals average three weekends each month, April through October. I have several retail outlet stores where I supply products on a weekly basis, as well as internet sales. JANET: Say we're out shopping. Somebody will see him, and they'll say, "Are you Poppin Joe?" And you can just see Joe stands up straighter and gets a big smile, and he knows he's Poppin Joe. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Exterior of Joe's house. (JANET): And the business has given him the opportunity to rent his own place, pay utilities, he buys his own food, he's not on any subsidy for food or housing or utilities. He pays his own way, and then he gets to choose the activities that he likes. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe skis to the ski lift. Ray and Janet look on as Joe takes the lift up. (RAY): When we're gone, then the business could go ahead and support him in the same manner. What we would like to see is to bring on a person who would be interested in being a partner in the business, doing the management part of the business, and Joe would keep the capacity that he has as being an owner. (JANET): On a farm, it's a team effort. You all pull together to make it happen. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: In the backyard, the family works together making kettle corn. (JANET): We expected Joe to be a part of it, to do the part he could do, from the very beginning. [mellow atmospheric music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter eight - "I've got the jersey to prove it." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The Bob Boyte car dealership in Brandon, Mississippi. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. TRUST: My name's Trust Jones. I'm from Brandon, Mississippi, and I'm 23 years old. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust walks through the dealership to a back office. TRUST: Every time, when I come back here, I always go for one thing. My check. I come here to get my check. Best one ever. BOSS: Hey, Trust. TRUST: Hi. BOSS: How are you doing, sir? TRUST: Pretty good, pretty good. BOSS: Very good. TRUST: Thank you. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust receives his paycheck from his boss and coworker. TRUST: Every time I come here, this is what I get. BOSS: He gets paid! TRUST: Every single time. And I love it, I love it. [boss laughing] TRUST: Best job ever. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust proudly holds his check over his head. TRUST: My mom worked, my brother worked, my sisters worked, and I knew I had to, I had to put in work. My current job, my current job is with Bob Boyte Honda. Last check I got, was 324 bucks. The most money ever. Didn't spend it all. CHERYL: We know that there are people with disabilities going to work, but oftentimes we look at that as, "Oh, isn't that remarkable," or "Isn't that incredible." We need to start to recognize that people with disabilities have skills and talents, and we need to encourage those and support those. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust's Manager, Tiffany Boyte. TIFFANY: Trust has not only just gotten a job here, I think he's built a purpose within this dealership. He's given us something that we haven't had. We saw very quickly that he was really good with technology. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust sits in his cubicle, looking at a Facebook page on his computer. TRUST: My job was to oversee the Facebook and Twitter pages of Bob Boyte. And it was good. We got a lot of feedback, a lot of feedback from customers, a lot of likes. TIFFANY: It is not charity for us at all. I don't think the dealership would be the same without him. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Concord, New Hampshire. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. AMY: My name is Amy Messer, I'm the Executive Director at the Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire. Oftentimes, people just simply don't understand that individuals with disabilities bring everything to the workplace that everybody without disabilities brings as well. They bring their skills and their talents, their dedication, their collegiality, and so I think people underestimate, actually, the value of employment for people with disabilities to the employer. [mellow atmospheric music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The Quality Cash Market, a local grocery store. Brendan Welch. BRENDAN: My name is Brendan, I am 30 years old, I grew up in Concord, yep. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Brendan clocks in. (BRENDAN): I do the floors, I do the soda cooler, the beer cooler, the dishes, and anything else they want me to do. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Brendan works quickly in different parts of the store. Brendan's manager, Liz Duncan. LIZ: Brendan has a really good approach with people. He takes a lot of pride into what he's doing, and so, when he wants to, and we try give him a little bit more responsibility, he does get really nervous, but we just kind of coach him along, and he really does take responsibility very well. He likes to joke around a lot, which, we all-- we're good with it, you know. BRENDAN: Sometimes people call me a pain in the butt because I can be a pain in the butt. It's all family, they treat me as a family member. AMY: If you talk to employers who have individuals with disabilities employed in their workplace, you're gonna hear a lot of really positive stories. LIZ: I've had several people who have had disabilities come in and ask for a job. And it's not as-- fill out an application. If I know that you're qualified, I'm gonna hire you. BRENDAN: I like the people, I like conversation, and I like to be friendly with everybody. TRUST: It's great, I interact with customers, I talk to the workers. I get paid. I love it. BRENDAN: Sometimes I take my mom out to lunch on Sunday, or I take her out to dinner. TRUST: My favorite team is the Pittsburg Steelers, and I've got the trunks, the jersey, the backpack, and the cap to prove it. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust walks back to his desk. TRUST: The internet department. TIFFANY: I could not imagine those two in a sheltered workshop. You wouldn't go do a job that would pay you a dollar on the hour or something like that, because you're worth more. They're worth more. [NARRATOR]: Chapter nine - "The chance to rise." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Stephanie Woodward waits for the next question from the interviewer. (INTERVIEWER): So, what am I missing? What haven't I asked you about that's important? STEPHANIE: How do we change it? AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Justin Young speaks to a camera at a protest of Goodwill. JUSTIN: Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act says that people with disabilities can be paid sub-minimum wage. We don't feel that's right, we feel our rights should be honored, just like every other population in this nation. JENSEN: I'm Jensen Caraballo, I'm an activist for disability rights. Protesting isn't something that we do first, we always, you know, take other advocacy avenues. Once we know that we're not getting anywhere, we organize actions. You get in people's faces and we let them know this isn't right, we're not gonna stand for this. No pun intended. [Jensen laughs] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Protesters hold up signs with slogans like, "Subminimum equals subhuman." JENSEN: 14(c) certificate under the Fair Labor Standards Act says that people with disabilities are less than everyone else, and we don't deserve to get paid like everyone else. And that's wrong. We have the power to make that change. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Painting on the side of a building in Tiffin, Ohio. Barbara Corner from Disability Rights Ohio. BARBARA: If somebody in a sheltered workshop, or their parent or guardian wishes to challenge their wages, they can file a request with the Department of Labor. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela shops for supplies. BARBARA: We decided that we wanted to follow that process. PAMELA: Judges ruled on our behalf, and he feels the same way we do, that we're being mistreated. I make minimum wage now, and I'm happy about that. I wanna be able to move up to where I'm gettin' paid really good. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela threads a needle. PAMELA: I'd like to go back to California. Not sure how much a plane ticket costs nowadays to go there. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Jim Larson from Morningside. JIM: Really, the celebration of closing the sheltered workshop, it was the second-best day of my career. The first one would be sending a letter back to the Federal Department of Labor and saying, "I choose not to renew this certificate." In 2014 we stopped paying sub-minimum wages. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Brendan cleans dishes at work. AMY: New Hampshire was the first in the nation to eliminate sub-minimum wage for people with disabilities. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles Biebl walks with his white cane. CHARLES: By the year 2020, Maryland is supposed to phase out paying sub-minimum wages to people with disabilities, you know, blind people and such. And that's a good thing. STEPHANIE: A minimum wage is just that, the minimum any worker should receive. [NARRATOR]: 48 states still allow sub-minimum wage. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Gloria Marrero uses sign language. GLORIA (VIA ASL): Oh, yeah, I want to earn more money. Well sure, I'd like to have a little bit more money. [slow church bell music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Gloria smiles. Joe plays a bell during church. LE'RON: After I got the check of $2.50 for working in a hot workshop with hot big fans, I said, "I quit. I can go find me somethin' else to do." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Theresa watches Dexter work. CHERYL: If individuals are given the proper services and supports, and proper assistive technology, the sky is the limit for many, many individuals. (HUGH): I make $9.59 an hour. Now I get four weeks' vacation. I get paid for my vacation. SARA: I wanna move more, move up more, at Children's in the receiving department. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Le'Ron drives his wheelchair through his office. LE'RON: I went to school. I got my degree. I work with Disability Rights Mississippi. I'm an advocate for people with disabilities. TRUST: I've been working for two years, had multiple-- had great internships and jobs. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust holds up his paycheck proudly. TRUST: And it's not just for me, it's not just for me, Trust Jones, who lives in Mississippi. It's to every state. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe bags popcorn. Sara at the subway. (TRUST): To the northeast. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dexter pushes carts. (TRUST): The southwest. The midwest. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela sews. TRUST: I may have a disability, but I can still work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of President Roosevelt in a wheelchair. (ROOSEVELT): I am still convinced that the American people continue to insist on sincere respect for the need of all people at the bottom who need to get work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara guiding a horse. (ROOSEVELT): And through work, to get a really fair share of the good things of life. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy smiling at the bowling alley. Joe skis towards the camera. (ROOSEVELT): And a chance to save, and a chance to rise. [NARRATOR]: Connect. Find more stories. Advocate for change. www.BottomDollarsMovie.com [ethereal electronic music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: End credits roll. [NARRATOR]: Produced and directed by Jordan Melograna Executive Producers David Carlson Mark Stroh Cinematography and editing by Jordan Melograna Associate Producer Tina Pinedo Original music by Catrina Melograna Thank you to those who appeared in the film Malanie Oyer Gloria Marrero Mark Riccobono Cheryl Bates-Harris Pamela Steward Barbara Corner Le'Ron Jackson Charles Biebel Roy Rocha James Meadours Betty Williams Stephanie Woodward Tilman Mitchell Dorothy Mitchell Joan Farish Sara Frost Robin Frost Scott Frost Tanya Hart-Newkirk Susan Kas Jim Larson Hugh Bertolin Dexter Smith Yolanda Sandoval-Nez Theresa Jim Andy Owens Cynthia Owens Adam Henry Joe Steffy E.R. Steffy Ray Steffy Janet Steffy Trust Jones Tiffany Boyte Amy Messer Brendan Welch Liz Duncan Justin Young Jensen Caraballo Sound Editor and Mixer Justin Newton Audio Description Narrator Tina Marie Murray Opening titles designed by Moriah Burton Jordan Melograna Production Assistants Courtney Cole Vanessa Link Rebekah Price Cuquis Robledo Paul Schaver Outreach and promotion by Kearsten Holmdale Tina Pinedo Stacie Siebrecht ASL Interpreter Stuart Tennis SignOn Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center Archival footage provided by Rick Ray/Shutterstock Pond5 Additional footage courtesy of Disability Rights Mississippi The National Federation of the Blind Special thanks The National Disability Rights Network Kansas Disability Rights Center of Kansas Ricky Nichols Mike Burgess Louisburg Cider Mill Snow Creek Ski Resort Jennifer Stratton Sonflower Ringers Beverly Williamson Maryland Chris Danielson The National Federation of the Blind Mississippi Bob Boyte Honda Disability Rights Mississippi Gathering Grounds Coffee Shop La Quinta Inn and Suites Vicksburg Ann Maclaine Shirley Walker New Hampshire Boston Children’s Hospital Brian Becquart Andrea Duggan Disability Rights Center – New Hampshire Giddy Up Farm Julia Freeman-Woolpert One Sky Community Services VPNE New Mexico Native American Disability Law Center Coyote Ridge Jessica Jones Walmart Gallup New York The Center for Disability Rights Elizabeth Forbes Ohio Stacy Brannan-Smith Disability Rights Ohio Michael Kirkman Oregon Michelle Afroso Tara Asai Disability Rights Oregon Powell’s Books Sunset Lanes Washington Heather McKimmie Laurie Schindler Morningside Services Stacie Siebrecht Produced with generous support from Disability Rights Washington Rooted in Rights is the author of this motion picture for the purpose of copyright and other laws. This motion picture is protected pursuant to the provisions of the laws of the United States of America and other countries. Any unauthorized duplication and/or exhibition of this motion picture may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution. Produced by Rooted in Rights Animated Rooted in Rights logo. A tree grows out of the word "rooted" as roots grow in the word "rights", with the slogan "disability rights are human rights" beneath it. End of transcript.