Australia has progressively moved to reform the provision of vocational and employment opportunities for people with disability who work in segregated employment. However, people with disability who work in Australian Disability Enterprises (ADE)574 are still segregated in employment situations that are subject to lower wages and conditions than other people.
Under the Supported Wage Systems, employers can pay people with disability less than the minimum wage, based on productivity levels.575 Wage determination methods used by ADEs are legitimised in registered industrial instruments developed with the assistance of the union movement. They provide a legally acceptable means by which ADEs are able to reduce Award wage rates of pay for people with disability they employ which, in any other circumstance, would constitute a breach of industrial law.576
According to the 2010 Federal Government Discussion Paper canvassing views on the future of ADEs577, the mean weekly wage of supported employees is $88 per week (compared to the average weekly earnings of $376 of Australians generally), rising from a mean wage in 2000 of between $41 and $60 per week.578 Despite this apparent improvement, in 2010, according to the Discussion Paper, 33 per cent of ADE employees still received between $40 and $60 per week and 57 per cent still earn $80 or less per week.
In addition, hours worked by supported employees have declined significantly in the last 10 years. In 2000, 61 per cent of these employees were employed on a full-time basis. In 2010, only 24.7 per cent of ADE supported employees were employed on a full-time basis. The remaining three-quarters are now employed part-time.579
There is also a lack of research and oversight about the wage setting practices of Australian Disability Enterprises.580
