In today’s news we learn that a Tory minister has apologised for being caught saying remarks which imply that the disabled are not worth paying the minimum wage. To be fair, it’s probably not just him – probably most privileged Tories have a basic misunderstanding of the word “minimum”. And are in dire need of a bit of basic remedial English remedial education.
As an aside, I’m going to use some words like “incompetent”, “lazy”, “useless”, etc. to refer to people but this is not intended to apply to disabled people. I’m making a point about the minimum wage and not about disabled people; most of whom I am sure are worth far more than the minimum wage.
The minimum wage is just that … a minimum. Which means that no matter how poor, any employee who is just about avoiding being fired is worth that wage. The minimum wage is not a full wage, it is a basic minimum that any employer should want to exceed.
Anybody who exceeds the minimum requirements for performing on a job – even if they are not “excellent” or even “good” deserves more than the minimum wage.
Let’s emphasise that: If you are a good worker and you are being paid the minimum wage then you are under paid. You are being ripped off.
On the subject of the disabled in the work place, perhaps we should be thinking of them as people with certain limitation – just like the rest of us. The overwhelming majority of people out there are not capable of doing my job as well as I can do it because of their limitations – limitations in experience and the ability to think in certain ways. I cannot think off the top of my head of a single physical limitation that would prevent someone doing my job.
Some disabled people may need “special” arrangements to be able to do my job – a special desk for wheelchair users for example. But so do I – I’m tall, so I need a taller desk than usual, and I need a special pair of glasses to read the computer screen for an extended duration. Where is the difference?
Spending a few hundred (or thousand) pounds to adapt a work place to the needs of the worker is hardly an excessive price to pay – it’s a tiny proportion of the cost of employing someone. And employers should be doing this for every worker – adapting the work place for the needs of each individual who works there will make them feel valued, will probably make them more productive, and is less likely to make disabled people feel uncomfortable about asking for their special needs.
We all have special needs.