Partner Eve Hill was quoted as a legal authority in a Texas Public Radio story about the U.S. Department of Labor rescinding its proposal to eliminate the subminimum wage for workers with disabilities.
On December 3, 2024, the Department of Labor announced that it would be phasing out certificates that allow employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage. While the proposed ruling gave hope for disability rights advocates and individuals with disabilities, the ruling was withdrawn on July 7, 2025.
Eve, one of the nation’s leading civil rights attorneys, provided some ways disability rights advocates could focus their efforts on eliminating subminimum wage for workers with disabilities, despite the withdrawal of the ruling. She advised that, for example, advocates focus on the Transformation to a Competitive Integrated Employment Act, a bipartisan bill that would phase out subminimum wage employment for disabled workers.
“That would assist employers who provide subminimum wages to transform their programs into competitive integrated employment,” Eve explained. “Meaning, paying competitive minimum wages and being more integrated, and it would phase out the use of the Section 14(c) certificates over time.”
Eve also discussed how the Department of Labor is proposing to eliminate the affirmative action requirements for federal contractors. This means that previous requirements that made some federal contractors aim for at least 7% of their employees self-identifying as having a disability, would be no longer.
“Employment of people with disabilities has gone up over that time, and they’re going to undo all that good work,” Eve said.
Eve was also quoted in a Law360 article on eliminating subminimum wage earlier this year and has previously written a blog on the topic.
“Now is the time for us – all of us – to work to end subminimum wages once and for all,” Eve wrote in her blog.
Public comments on the withdrawal of the proposal are being accepted through September 2, 2025.
Eve has been recognized by Law360 as one of just 12 “Titans of the Plaintiffs’ Bar,” as well as by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America. Her wide-ranging experience complements Brown, Goldstein & Levy’s decades of dedication to high-impact disability rights cases and its advocacy on behalf of individuals with disabilities and their families. Eve also leads Inclusivity, BGL’s Strategic Consulting Group, which works with organizations to promote the education, engagement, and employment of people with disabilities. Learn more about Eve’s disability rights practice here.
Read the full story from Texas Public Radio here.
Founded in 1982, Brown, Goldstein & Levy is a law firm based in Baltimore, Maryland, with an office in Washington, D.C. The firm is nationally recognized in a wide variety of practice areas, including complex civil and commercial litigation, civil rights, health care, family law, and criminal defense. Above all else, Brown, Goldstein & Levy is a client-centered law firm that brings decades of experience and passionate, effective advocacy to your fight for justice.