20,000 Australians Are Paid A Disgraceful $2.30/Hour — & It’s Legal Because They’re Disabled

Right now, 20,000 adult Australians are being paid as little as $2.30 an hour — and it’s totally legal. In fact, it’s encouraged by the government. 

These Australians do some of the most tedious and repetitive work imaginable. Packing earphones into plastic sleeves, scrubbing labels off wine bottles, packing the same thing into a box over and over again, for years. It's hard, important work that many other Australians wouldn’t do even if you offered them 10 times more, but these people do it for far less than the minimum wage. 

This work happens right across the country in workshops and warehouses that very few people will ever enter, hidden away from the rest of the community. For decades, our attitudes and laws have told us this is okay, because the people we are talking about have a disability. 

The vast majority of the workers in these workplaces, known as Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs), are people with intellectual disabilities. The Royal Commission in Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability heard horrific testimony of abuse and exploitation that had occurred in ADEs. In its final report, the Disability Royal Commission found that ADEs were places where violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation thrived. 

Ultimately, the majority of Commissioners recommended that ADEs be phased out over the next 15 years, with the government to develop a plan to get people with disability to full pay equity. The Federal Government has until March 2024 to respond to the Disability Royal Commission recommendations. 

But simply changing laws is not going to achieve workplace equality for people with disability. 

The hard truth is that our society does not see people with disabilities, particularly those with intellectual disabilities, as equal. For many people, that’s a hard thing to hear. They don’t think badly about people with disability. Surely it can't be that bad?

I’m here to tell you it’s way worse than you think. 

I went on national television last week to talk about ADEs and pay discrimination for people with disability. If you remove the embarrassingly gushing comments from my very proud family, the main feedback that came through was along the lines of, “If disabled people aren’t as productive as everyone else, then they should be paid less.”

Since when was our pay tied to our productivity? 

We all have that colleague who goes out for three coffees a day and takes an hour and a half lunch break. They drop the ball on their work but manage to always skate through without any consequences. That person isn’t getting paid less because of their overreliance on caffeine and lack of productivity throughout the day. When I have a ‘meh’ day at work and don’t get everything on my list done, I don’t get paid any less. And let’s be real, if wages were tied to productivity, many CEOs would be getting a massive pay cut and plenty of newly arrived migrants would be financially set up for life. 

Pay discrimination isn’t really about productivity; it’s about equality. It’s about whether people with disability have equal rights under the law and in the workplace. It’s about whether our fellow Australians view us as equal human beings worthy of equal human rights. Because the argument that we are less productive inherently suggests that we are less than — less capable, less valuable and less worthy. 

And if that’s what the majority of people think — and this debate would suggest that’s true — we need a bigger conversation than one about equal pay. We need you — the 4 out of 5 Australians without a disability — to decide if you’re actually committed to having people with disability in your lives as equals. 

We need you to look around your workplace and if there isn’t a disabled person in your entire company, you should ask why. We need you to demand that our communities become more accessible, from the train station ‘mind the gap’ to making sure the local cafe has a ramp for that front step. 

We need you to push back on the next friend who uses the word ‘retard’ or ‘crippled’ and remind them that these words are slurs against people with disability and spread hatred. 

We need you to NEVER use a disabled toilet, carpark, seat on the train, tram, ferry or bus. These accessibility requirements are the only way we can get around the world safely and when they’re used by others, they can often stop people with disability from accessing the community altogether. I can’t tell you how many times I have turned around and gone home because the disabled park is taken by someone without a permit. 

We need you to open up your lives to people with disability. Have a book club without a single disabled member? Make it your mission to have someone disabled join in the next 6 months. Going to the footy? Why not take your nephew who has Down Syndrome, but can tell you the score of every game this season? 

Disabled Australians make up 1 in 5 Australians. So if you have a friendship group that is larger than five, but not a single disabled friend, you have (however unconsciously) segregated your life from people with disability. Now’s the time to change that. 

And finally, we need you when it comes time to vote — from local council to Federal Government — take a moment to listen to people with disability about the issues they're concerned about and see if your vote can help. Because transitioning people with disability out of ADEs and into open employment will only work if those workplaces are welcoming and willing to support the needs of people with disability. 

So as we increase pay for people with disability from $2.30 an hour to pay equity, can we also reach equality in the eyes of our fellow Australians?

Because more money is great, but more respect is even better.