Some Pennsylvania Goodwill workers who are disabled made as little as 22, 38 and 41 cents per hour in 2011, according to Labor Department documents reviewed by NBC News. That’s because a 1938 law, called the Special Wage Certificate Program, aimed at encouraging employers to hire disabled workers, allows charities and companies to get special certificates from the Department of Labor that permits them to pay disabled workers based on their abilities, with no minimum.
Though other employers take advantage of the same loophole, recent media investigations have brought attention to Goodwill's use of the certificate.
As some workers were making as little as 22 cents per hour in 2011, Goodwill International CEO Jim Gibbons made $729,000 in salary and deferred compensation. The CEOs of Goodwill franchises across the country collectively earned about $30 million, according to NBC.
Brad Turner-Little, Goodwill's director of mission strategy, told The Huffington Post that compensation of Goodwill executives and the wages earned by workers with disabilities aren't "connected." He explained that local Goodwill organizations make independent determinations about what to pay their executives based on what they need to recruit "good talent."
As for the workers with disabilities, their pay is determined through a "rigorous" review process in line with Department of Labor regulations that assess their productivity and other factors, Turner-Little said. Goodwill performs the reviews at least every six months to make sure employees are being paid properly.
"It's not a connected issue, it’s a different kind of job," Turner-Little said.
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Goodwill Exploits Workers With Disabilities, Report Claims
The Huffington Post | By Jessica Prois Posted: 05/20/2013 3:52 pm EDT | Updated: 05/20/2013 3:53 pm EDT
Investigative journalist John Hrabe recently reported for Watchdog.org that Goodwill pays some of its employees less than minimum wage, when some of its executive team makes more than $1 million -- a practice he calls out as unfair.
Goodwill pays some of its employees with disabilities under the provision called The Special Wage Certificate program. The program allows an employer to pay a person with disabilities below minimum wage when performance is affected. About 7,300 of its 30,000 employees with disabilities receive these adjusted wages, Brad Turner-Little, Director of Mission Strategy at Goodwill Industries International, told HuffPost Live.
Jim Gibbons, Goodwill CEO, addressed Hrabe's concerns in a recent HuffPost blog, arguing that the provision creates job opportunities for people with disabilities that wouldn't otherwise exist:
"While some have called for this program to be eliminated, let's be clear about exactly what that would mean. It would mean that many hard-working people would be out of their jobs. It would mean that even more than 80 percent of people with disabilities would be out of work."
One of the issues Hrabe takes issue with the most is the disparity in pay. 17 Goodwill entities reported executive compensation in excess of $1 million per year. In 2011, the lowest paid Goodwill worker earned $1.40 per hour, he reported.
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Cherokee High School dominates Goodwill competition
As always, the students of the Lenape Regional High School District came out in droves recently to help the less fortunate. The high school students at the four schools threw their efforts into a massive Goodwill collection campaign and donated thousands of pounds of used clothing to the non-profit organization.
Lenape Regional High School District Foundation of Leadership students and faculty advisers from each high school organized the community service project benefitting Goodwill. Proceeds from the sale of everything collected fund Goodwill’s job training programs and career services that help local residents with disabilities and disadvantages get to work, Goodwill representatives reported.
Cherokee High School dominated the competition, coming in first place with just more than 11,400 pounds of donated clothing. It collected 6,000 pounds more clothing than the closest high school, Seneca, which donated about 5,000 pounds.
Shawnee High School came in third place with 4,449 pounds of clothes and Lenape High School came in fourth with 3,991 pounds.
In total, the high schools of the LRHSD brought in just a bit more than 25,000 pounds of donated clothing.
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Related articles
- Some disabled workers paid just pennies an hour (openchannel.nbcnews.com)
- Goodwill pays workers with disabilities as little as 22 cents an hour (salon.com)
- Some disabled workers paid just pennies an hour - and it's legal (willyloman.wordpress.com)
- Goodwill Pays Disabled Workers 22 Cents An Hour While Execs Make Millions; Legal Loophole Says It's Okay [VIDEO] (medicaldaily.com)
- Goodwill pays workers with disabilities as little as 22 cents an hour (soulbrotherspeaks.com)
- Disabled workers paid just pennies an hour - and it's legal (syndicatednewsservices.com)
- How Being Disabled Means Your Boss can Suppress Your Wages (commondreams.org)
- Goodwill is NOT good. (ladymelancholy.com)
- Policies, tax dollars enrich Goodwill execs (watchdog.org)
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The Huffington Post | By Jillian Berman
Posted: 06/21/2013 10:32 am EDT | Updated: 06/21/2013 7:33 pm EDT