Congress expands subminimum wage jobs for young workers with disabilities

What it does

This bill amends the Rehabilitation Act to expand the use of subminimum wage employment for workers with disabilities. It lowers the age threshold from 24 to 18, changes the legal standard from a prohibition ("no" entity may pay subminimum wage) to a permission ("any" entity "if" certain conditions are met), adds a new requirement that the individual must affirmatively choose subminimum employment, and creates an exception allowing employers to pay subminimum wages if they document efforts to contact state vocational rehabilitation agencies and those agencies fail to respond. The bill makes these changes effective immediately upon enactment.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is to expand employer authority to pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities by lowering the age threshold, flipping the legal standard from prohibition to permission, and creating new exceptions. The title frames this as 'restoration of choice,' but the substantive effect is deregulation of subminimum wage use.

What the text implies

• The 'affirmative choice' requirement may be difficult to enforce or verify, especially if workers face economic pressure or limited alternatives. Employers could document nominal consent without meaningful negotiation.
• The state-agency-failure exception shifts burden: if a state vocational rehabilitation unit is understaffed or slow to respond, employers gain automatic authority to pay subminimum wages—a penalty on workers for government capacity gaps.
• Lowering the age from 24 to 18 expands the population eligible for subminimum wages during critical early-career years when wage-setting patterns are established, potentially locking younger workers into lower lifetime earnings.
• The bill requires employers to share documentation with the state unit but does not mandate that workers receive copies or have independent review, creating an information asymmetry.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Workers with disabilities, particularly younger ones (18–23), face expanded legal pathways to subminimum wage employment. While the bill nominally requires affirmative choice, it lowers the age floor and creates an exception based on state agency failure—a factor outside the worker's control—potentially pressuring younger workers into below-minimum-wage jobs. The bill does not mandate competitive integrated employment or strengthen protections; it loosens restrictions on subminimum wage use.

Who stands to gain

• employers of workers with disabilities
• sheltered workshops and subminimum-wage employers

Named in the bill

Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 511, state vocational rehabilitation agencies, workers with disabilities, sheltered workshops

Where it stands

5 cosponsors: 5 Republicans.

• May 12, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• May 12, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
• May 21, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
• May 21, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 18 - 15”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

3 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $72,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 6 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.

Glenn Grothman, the sponsor, reported $325,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Arc of the United States — $50,000 on 1 filing
• National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities — $12,000 on 1 filing
• Skookum Educational Programs — $10,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.