Israel Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene
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Appendix E: Adaptive minimum wage
The Office for the Integration of People with Disabilities into the Workforce, the Ministry
of Industry, Trade and Labor, started operating the adaptive minimum wage regulations
in November 2006. According to the regulations a disabled employee can approach the
office and ask that a wage be assigned to him, lower than the minimum wage set by law,
in accordance to his actual working capability.
In 2007 the Law of Equal Rights for Disabled People Employed as rehabilitated (temporary
provision), 2007. This law regulates the rights and occupational status of disabled employees
whose status was set as rehabilitated. According to this law, setting the status of a person
as rehabilitated will be done in the same manner as the setting of the working capability of
a disabled employee, as defined in the Minimum Wage regulations. According to this law,
between an employer and an employee, whose status was set as rehabilitated, there are
no employer-employee relations, and the employee is entitled to employment wage as set
by law, with accordance to the capability that was set for him (as will be explained later) as
well as other rights as set by law.
The purpose of these regulations is to encourage the employment of disabled people in the
labor market. Adaptive minimum wage is based on the principle of equal wage for equal
work. This principle appears, among other places, in the international convention for equal
rights for disabled people which was recently signed by many countries, including the state
of Israel. The adaptive minimum wage is set in gradual form and is always equal to or higher
than the relative output of the disabled person compared to an average person without
disabilities, and in this ensures that the disabled person will get a relative wage that is not
lower than his relative output. It is important to note that neither the regulations nor the law
prevent the disabled person who found a job with wage that is equal to or higher than the
minimum, to work there.
The adaptive wage is set based on evaluation of the employee’s working capability compared
to the working capability of a person without disabilities in the same job. In order to get this
evaluation a diagnostic examination takes place by a professional diagnostician. It is important
to note that the diagnostic examination takes place in the workplace and is valid to the
specific job filled by the employee and for which he undertakes this diagnostic examination.
The diagnostic examination process includes discussions with the employer or direct manager
of the employee, colleagues and the employee himself, as well as a number of observations
