Kerianne Krause of Beyond Distilling Co. entered college with plans to teach history, but she switched gears to study applied behavior analysis after her first son was born during her sophomore year.
Krause eventually earned a Masters degree in the field with an emphasis in autism. Shortly after, her son, now 10, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which “refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication,” according to Autism Speaks.
New CDC numbers released in December 2021 analyzing 2018 data from 11 states found that, among eight-year-olds, one in 44 had been diagnosed with autism. In South Carolina, 1,216,011 adults are living with a disability, making up one-third of the state’s population.
Many of these children and adults with mental and physical disabilities can benefit from applied behavior analysis services.
That’s where Krause’s six-year-old health center Building Independence Together factors in.
The 70-person staff serves over 100 clients, helping them gain independence with evidence-based therapy. Once young adults with disabilities turn 21, however, this therapy becomes more difficult to access due to a lack of funding from insurance companies when individuals age out of the services.
Once they finish high school, adults with disabilities enter a competitive workforce in which businesses can apply for certificates to pay disabled employees less than minimum wage, due to a discriminatory loophole in federal labor law that dates to 1938.
Krause found one of her clients struggling to find employment in 2019; that’s when the idea for Beyond Distilling Co. was born.
Equal opportunity employment
Alongside co-owners Tyler LaCorata and Ryan Sadis, Krause debuted her inclusive North Charleston distillery Dec. 17, 2021. In addition to serving signature craft spirits, Beyond Distilling’s mission is to employ people with disabilities.
Zachary Spanos, one of two distillery employees with a diagnosed disability, was present for the ribbon cutting Dec. 17 alongside his co-workers. After finishing a training program created by Krause, Spanos, who has autism, became proficient on the bottling line, which he can now complete by himself. Krause’s program provides a framework for employees to learn; it also teaches supervisors how to help staff members with disabilities achieve independence.
“The important components are the interview process in the beginning, understanding deficits, understanding their goals and what they like to do,” Krause said. “The harder part of the training is how to teach the managerial person how to help without stepping in and doing all the work.”
Krause says “infantilizing” is common in the workplace for people with disabilities. If the person can’t perform a task, the natural tendency is for the manager to step in and complete it for them, rather than explain what they’re doing wrong.
“It takes some training to undo that,” Krause said. “It’s breaking down those social constructs that we’ve all been taught. We’re all the same; we just need help in different areas.”
Zachary Spanos (center) has an event bracelet put on him by Kerianne Krause during the Beyond Distilling Co.’s grand opening on Dec. 17, 2021 in North Charleston. Zachary is one of two persons with disabilities that works at the distillery. Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff
According to Krause, the 3-6 month training is task-oriented, allowing employees to contribute as they learn. A positive work environment is key at Beyond Distilling Co., which currently sells three bottled spirits: Bourbon, tropical gin and coconut rum.
“We like to do a relaxed kind of feeling because we know that working at your job is half your life, so we want to make it enjoyable,” said Beyond Distilling co-owner and head distiller Tyler LaCorata. “We’re helping them out and they’re also helping us out.”
Stephanie Bridgers, owner of Columbia’s The Local Buzz, has experience training people with disabilities. Before moving her business to Five Points in February 2020, The Local Buzz’s Rosewood café partnered with a local high school to train young adults with disabilities. Bridgers, a mother of four sons, two of which have autism, employed people with disabilities at her new location before the pandemic forced her to significantly scale back operations.
She currently focuses on takeout, meaning she doesn’t employ any full-time staff members, but she plans to hire people with disabilities when her café extends its hours of operation.
“One of my goals for the café was to have somewhere that was welcoming to everybody,” Bridgers said. “You hire the person that’s suited for the job and you pay them what the person who’s suited for the job gets.”
Subminimum wage
In 2020, South Carolina had the seventh highest unemployment rate in the U.S. for adults with disabilities, according to RespectAbility, a national nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities. According to the Kessler Foundation, between March and April of 2020, the number of employed people with a disability dropped by 20 percent. Statistics for 2021 will be released in March 2022.
After finishing high school, many of these young adults end up in “sheltered workplaces,” or places that employ people with disabilities separately from other employees. Many of these jobs, and other employment opportunities for disabled adults, pay less than minimum wage.
“There’s two issues in South Carolina with wages. One, it’s fair wages,” said Kimberly Tissot, president and CEO of Able SC, a Columbia-based nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities. More than half of Able SC’s staff are persons with disabilities.
“So people (with disabilities) that are in competitive employment are usually paid lower within the marginalized community. Then, there’s also issues with subminimum wage,” Tissot said.
An 84-year-old federal law under the Fair Labor Standards Act allows businesses to pay less than subminimum wage if it has a 14(c) Certificate, which allows “employers to pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities that impair their productivity for the work they perform,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
A bill to phase out subminimum wage by 2024 passed through the Senate but stalled in the House in May 2021. Originally filed by state Sen. Katrina Shealy of Lexington, the bill would enact the “Employment First Initiative Act,” establishing the “integrated employment of individuals with disabilities.”
Currently, subminimum wage is handled differently state-by-state. So far, Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii have passed legislation to eliminate subminimum wage. If the bill passes this session, subminimum wage would be phased out in South Carolina by 2025.
“It’s just common sense and common decency that everybody that works should make the same. There should be no discrimination, and to me, that’s discrimination,” Shealy said. “If they’re doing the same job, they should be able to make the same wage.”
The bill calls for the creation and funding of an oversight commission that would work to ensure people with disabilities maintain employment once the measure is lifted. It also encourages government agencies to hire people with disabilities.
“The most important thing is creating this commission that will keep us on an annual basis,” said state Rep. Neal Collins, R-Pickens, the bill’s lead sponsor in the House. “What I like about it is it will be a consistent reminder to the general assembly about what needs to be done.”
“As our state is very high in unemployment, hopefully it will be a great way to get these folks who want to work to work,” added Rep. Chip Huggins, R-Lexington.
The bill is currently residing in conference committee, but Collins said the House has reached an agreement with the Senate. He anticipates the bill, H. 3244, will reach the House floor in January.
Staffing solution
Adults with disabilities are looking for work as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause staffing shortages statewide, especially in the food and beverage industry.
Yvonne Brown, area supervisor for the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department’s Charleston office, is connecting individuals who are eligible for the services with businesses looking to hire up.
In 2021, Brown reports that, in South Carolina, the federal program had 3,880 successful employment outcomes out of 23,606 consumers statewide.
People who have been placed are succeeding in part because of the foundational workplace training offered through the department, which has offices in more than 30 South Carolina towns. Individuals are taught soft skills, such as interview techniques and resume writing, along with job-specific tasks once the person’s goals are established.
Brown finds that persons with disabilities are fully capable of working in most job capacities, a belief she is trying to share with short-staffed businesses.
Zachary Spanos (left) and Kerianne Krause cork bottles of whiskey at Beyond Distilling Co. on Jan. 14, 2022 in North Charleston. Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff
“We really get a good chance to see what those individuals are going to do,” Brown said. “The bottom line is: Can the person do the job? I don’t think people with disabilities want a handout. They want to be able to get jobs as well.”
Not every adult qualifies for vocational therapy, however, one of several problems Krause finds with the current employment climate for people with disabilities.
She hopes to turn her training program that’s currently housed on her computer into a physical guide that could help businesses hire and train people with disabilities. So far, one brewery and another distillery have reached out to her for guidance.
While progress has been slow, businesses like Beyond Distilling Co. are proving a shift in employment opportunities for people with disabilities could be imminent.
This content was originally published here.
