# Plain Language Summary: Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act

This bill is about changing how people with disabilities get paid for their work. Right now, there's a special rule that allows employers to pay workers with disabilities less than minimum wage if they have a government certificate. This bill aims to end that practice and help employers transition to paying all workers—including those with disabilities—at least minimum wage or the regular rate paid to other workers doing the same job.

Here's what would actually happen: The bill creates grant programs to help employers who currently use these special low-wage certificates transform their business models. States and organizations that receive these grants would use the money to help employers shift from paying workers with disabilities sub-minimum wages to paying them competitive wages in regular jobs. The bill also requires that workers with disabilities get support services they need to succeed in these regular jobs—things like job coaching, transportation, or help managing their work schedule. The goal is to move people with disabilities into actual jobs in the community working alongside people without disabilities, rather than keeping them in separate, lower-paying work settings.

The bill also includes a phase-out timeline. No new special low-wage certificates can be issued, and existing ones would eventually expire. This means employers can't keep using this system indefinitely—they have to make the change. The bill requires states to track what happens to workers during this transition and afterward to make sure people are actually getting better jobs and earning more money. It also emphasizes involving people with disabilities themselves, their families, and various government agencies in planning how this transformation happens so that decisions aren't made without hearing from the people most affected.

Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act

Scott, Robert C. "Bobby"

Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act This bill addresses employment standards for individuals with disabilities. The bill directs the Department of Labor to award grants to states and certain eligible entities to assist them in transforming their business and program models to support individuals with disabilities by <ul> <li>providing competitive integrated employment, </li> <li>assisting disabled individuals in finding and retaining work in such employment,</li> <li>providing integrated employment and integrated community participation and wraparound services for such individuals, and</li> <li>ensuring that such services comply with federal regulations for individuals receiving home and community-based services. </li> </ul> The bill also prohibits the issuance of new special certificates that allow payment of subminimum wages to disabled individuals and phases out existing certificates over a four-year period. The bill directs Labor's Office of Disability Employment to award grants to provide technical assistance and other strategic support to employers transitioning from special certificates to competitive integrated employment for disabled individuals. Labor must contract with a nonprofit entity to conduct an evaluation of the impact of these transitions.