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Press Coverage
1/9/07 The Daily Courier:
Commission now studying wage issue
The developmentally disabled workforce is the only major issue currently surrounding Arizona’s new wage law and its lack of some exemptions, said Larry Etchechury, director of the Arizona Industrial Commission charged with enforcing the new law that took effect Jan. 1.
The issue could affect as many as 6,000 disabled workers, by estimates he’s heard.
The Industrial Commission has issued a temporary ruling that allows organizations such as Yavapai Exceptional Industries to continue to pay developmentally disabled workers less than minimum wage without fear of federal fines.
The Industrial Commission now is gathering information about the issue before conducting hearings and issuing a permanent set of rules to implement the new law, he said.
He knows very well that another voter-approved measure prohibits the state from changing the intent of any voter-approved propositions. Gov. Janet Napolitano has said that same law prohibits the Legislature from taking action.
But Etchechury said the commission has options.
For example, it could decide that organizations such as YEI fall outside of the definition of the workplace, so their oversight would revert back to federal law, which allows groups to pay developmentally disabled people less than the minimum wage.
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