Seattle Nonprofit Underpaid Workers With Disabilities, City Says

SEATTLE, WA - A Seattle-based nonprofit has agreed to pay over $40,000 in back pay to 10 workers after an investigation by the city's Office of Labor Standards

According to OLS, the nonprofit Northwest Center, which places adults with disabilities in jobs, did not get permission to pay the employees less than the city minimum wage. Under state law, employers can pay a disabled person less than minimum wage by obtaining a subminimm wage certificate. Seattle OLS officials say Northwest Center neither applied for nor ever obtained such a certificate.

But a Northwest Center spokesperson said the employees were being paid according to federal law. The employees were working as federal contractors, Northwest Center's Emily Miller told Patch, so they got paid according to federal standards.

Seattle OSL spokesperson Cynthia Santana said the federal standard was not applicable in this investigation because Northwest Center never applied for or received a subminimum wage certificate from the city. Beginning September 2017, Seattle stopped issuing those subminimum wage certificates altogether.

Northwest Center has already paid $37,000 to the employees and will pay approximately $3,800 more per the agreement with OLS.

Miller said that paying disabled people more than minimum wage can be harmful, taking away their ability to qualify for certain federal benefits.

"While the wages earned by these individuals originally fell below the city minimum wage, Northwest Center retroactively increased their hourly wages to at or above the current Seattle minimum when Executive Order 13658 passed in 2014," Miller wrote in an email to Patch. "As a result, most of these individuals and their guardians made the decision to voluntarily drastically reduce their weekly work hours due to critical federal benefit income limits. This means less community participation and a drastic reduction in their employment activities—which our clients did not view as progress toward a more inclusive world."

Northwest Center places disabled adults in Pierce, King, and Snohomish counties into jobs. The nonprofit also provides education for developmentally disabled kids. Northwest Center's employees work as janitors, retail clerks, and in numerous other roles.

According to the nonprofit's 2016 tax return, Northwest Center had about a $20 million fund balance, and took in over $7 million in donations. The nine top executives at Northwest Center all earned six figures that year, according to the tax return, including about $242,000 in compensation paid to CEO Benjamin Ravani.

Seattle's $15 minimum wage ordinance went into effect April 1, 2015. The law ramps up pay each year until 2021, when all employers in the city will be required to pay $15 per hour minimum. In 2018, the minimum wage ranges between $11.50 per hour for small employers to $15.45 for large employers.

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