On the radio show this week, we covered what happened in the November 5th Elections, where to find hope, how your voice and your story is more powerful than ever before, and what we can all do to lift democracy. We also cover the importance of disability economic justice, equal pay, and the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

Special Guests include: Donna Norton and Ruth Martin, MomsRising, @MomsRising; U.S. Representative Teresa Leger-Fernandez, @repteresaLF @DemWomenCaucus; Marissa Ditkowsky, National Partnership for Women & Families, @npwf [full transcript provided below]; Christine Pelosi, author and Democratic National Committee, @sfpelosi.

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TRANSCRIPT: Marissa Ditkowski 

Kristin: Welcome back to Breaking Through with me, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, powered by MomsRising. We're joined right now by a guest who you're going to love hearing from, a lot of important news that you can use, Marissa Dekowski, who's the Disability and Economic Justice Council with the National Partnership for Women and Families. Welcome. 

Marissa: Thank you so much for having me. 

ristin: I'm so glad you're on, and I'm so glad you're here to tell us what's going on. As you yourself are a lawyer who has worked on so many important justice issues, we're super grateful to have you here today to talk about disability and economic justice. We as a nation just marked the sadly historic moment of the pay equity movement, because we've had Disabled Women's Equal Pay Day. I say “sadly” because it's the day that we mark unequal pay — so, it's a day for activation, not celebration. And speaking of unequal pay, data is showing us that women workers who are disabled, overall, both full- and part-time workers, are only paid 50 cents for every dollar that a non-disabled man makes. And full-time, year-round disabled women workers are typically paid just 67 cents for every dollar paid to a non-disabled man who is working full-time, year-round. This is not okay — this has to stop. Can you share a little bit about why this disparity exists? What's going on? 

Marissa: Yeah, absolutely. So, there are obviously a lot of things that contribute to this wage gap. First, there's discrimination of all forms: sexism, racism, ableism, and a lack of policies that support women. These are all barriers to our economic security and stability. So a couple of factors to kind of talk about that keep disabled women from thriving at work, we have occupational segregation, which is when women, people of color, disabled folks, people from other marginalized backgrounds, are funneled into these low-paying, undervalued jobs. And this is a result of deliberate policy choices and stereotypes that are rooted in sexism, racism, classism, ableism, and all of their effects. 

We also have subminimum wages. Tens of thousands of disabled workers are being paid less than the federal minimum wage, which is allowed federally. So, with a majority of those folks making less than $3.50 per hour, and only a minority of those workers working alongside workers without disabilities, they are not engaging in what we call “competitive integrated employment.” They're not being allowed those opportunities to work in jobs with competitive pay alongside non-disabled folks with the opportunity for advancement similar to non-disabled folks. 

Obviously there's also employment discrimination in hiring, promotion, retention, and that can include difficulty receiving or denial of reasonable accommodations in the workplace. There's also the lack of paid leave. People working in lower wage jobs who are disproportionately likely to be disabled women, particularly disabled women of color, are less likely to have access to paid leave, meaning they may be forced to take unpaid leave to care for themselves and their loved ones. And that contributes to the wage gap. 

We also recognize that fully leveling the playing field will require more than just equal pay, right? The reality is that disabled women have greater expenses. The National Disability Institute has a report that shows that on average, households with a disabled member require 28% more in income per year to maintain the same standard of living as non-disabled households. So, while we advocate for equal pay — and that's a good start, it's not going to be enough to achieve full equity for disabled women. 

Kristin: What can we do to address this crisis? I mean, this is a very big crisis. There's a lot of factors involved. So, as people who are listening, what actions can they take as community members to advocate for and create awareness about this pay inequality, particularly for disabled women and other issues affecting people with disabilities? 

Marissa: The first thing to do is to really listen to and follow disabled folks, make sure that we are being centered in conversations. And the other thing is to note that every issue is a disability issue. Disabled folks are impacted whether it comes to health care, whether it comes to housing, in environmental justice. “Nothing about us without us” has been one of our rallying cries, but the reality is that nothing should be happening without us, because we are impacted in every issue area and bring a unique perspective in all areas. 

I also recommend following and supporting organizations like the National Partnership for Women and Families to stay up to date on some of the latest news and legislation that's moving to support closing the wage gap. I know for Disabled Women's Equal day, we released some new research that made a bunch of recommendations for policy changes, including a few right now. So one of them is passing the HCBS Access Act and Better Care for Better Jobs Act to support disabled women workers in the care workforce, as well as disabled folks who give and receive care that helps them to live and work in their communities and even engage in supported employment; passing the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would break some harmful patterns of pay discrimination and would strengthen workplace protections for women; ensuring full funding for the EEOC, Department of Labor, Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, so that there are sufficient resources to combat wage discrimination and employment discrimination and holds employers accountable. We need a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program. We need to establish a family-friendly workplaces standard. We have to pass the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act, which would increase the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) asset limit, which right now is only $2000 for an individual and $3000 for an eligible couple. It would increase the asset limit for disabled women and their partners that would allow disabled women to retain the income they earn from working while on SSI and save money. We need to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to support competitive integrated employment for disabled folks and address occupational segregation. Obviously, this is a lot of systemic transformation. We need to be really intentional about transforming our systems that are working as they are intended to work. The intention is to marginalize disabled women, particularly disabled women of color, and we need to transform these systems. 

Kristin: That's a lot. Are there ways that people can get engaged directly with you all to take action so people know how to take action? 

Marissa: So, folks can visit our website, which is nationalpartnership.org and can follow all of the latest news and sign up for action alerts. 

Kristin: How are recent Supreme Court rulings, including the overruling of Chevron, Roe v. Wade, and more, impacting Americans with disabilities? 

Marissa: So, all of these rulings have a very real impact on disabled folks, particularly disabled women and disabled people of color. Dobbs, for example, has compounded the long-standing barriers to abortion care that disabled folks face. More than half of disabled women live in the 26 states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion post-Dobbs. And the impact of these abortion bans puts the health and safety of these more than 3 million disabled women at risk — and especially is dangerous to disabled women who are Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, and who are veterans. Pregnancy can be incredibly dangerous for disabled folks. Disabled women are at 11 times the risk of maternal mortality and also have a greater risk of maternal morbidity. 

There's also the issue of access to medications that may lead to abortions that are critical for disabled women treating their own health issues. For example, medications like Methotrexate have become incredibly difficult to access for women. And Mifepristone also treats Cushing’s syndrome. So, you know, there's all kinds of issues accessing life-saving medications. 

The overturning of Chevron severely limits the ability of public agencies to issue regulations and enforce laws that protect people in every corner of the country from bad actors. So that could impact the way public agencies are able to respond to issues about the environment, civil rights, housing, health care, which all impact disabled people. These rules also include drug safety standards, eligibility criteria for public benefits, the threshold for disability discrimination, guidance around worker protections, and so much more. We are already seeing the impacts of the overturning of Chevron with attacks on HHS's 504 regulations and 1557 regulations. And they're even going so far as to attack Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act itself. So really, they are trying to dismantle civil rights protections that disabled folks have relied on for decades. 

Kristin: That's horrible. We only have a couple of minutes left, and I have one last question. Are there things that our listeners need to know about the policy changes we're hoping to influence through the work that you're doing with the National Partnership for Women and Families with regards to the American with Disabilities Act, Social Security Benefits, or other policies and programs? I realize that this could be, like, a five-hour conversation and we only have three minutes, but just touching base. Is there anything we need to know and do before we part ways for today? We hope to have you back soon. 

Marissa: Yeah, absolutely. So, over the last year, we've put out a series of reports calling for the transformations of systems that have historically and systematically marginalized disabled folks. And you can find that on our website at nationalpartnership.org. I also want to note that The ADA itself is in danger. We know that Congress has been exploring different notice requirements that would make it much more difficult for folks, for example, who are trying to file complaints against or file lawsuits against public accommodations like stores or hotels or what have you. And so that is extremely concerning. We know that Social Security and Medicare under attack. And so, we are ready. And we will definitely be putting out action alerts and letting folks know what they can do when that time comes. 

Kristin: And before we let you go, speaking of “ready” and “action alerts,” can you share again how people can get involved and get those action alerts? 

Marissa: Absolutely. So, if you go to nationalpartnership.org, you can sign up to receive emails. And you can also follow us on social media @NPWF on multiple platforms. 

Kristin: Thank you so much. Thank you for being on with us. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for sharing what needs to happen and what is happening. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody: please sign up, support, join and stay engaged with the National Partnership for Women and Families. Thank you.