Petition To Goodwill To Pay Disabled Workers A Fair Wage
Readers, I’ve just received the shocking email below from Change.org. I’ve signed the petition, because I can’t believe this is happening in America. I’m asking you to do the same, please, and share this post wherever possible.
My husband and I are both blind. We’ve struggled for years to find consistent employment, even though we both have college degrees. We finally took jobs hanging clothes at Goodwill for only $3.50 an hour: barely enough to live on, less than minimum wage, and less than our non-disabled co-workers got paid.
After I had knee surgery last summer I returned to my job to find out my wage had been lowered to $2.75 an hour. Working for this little money barely covered my cost of getting to work. I wasn’t making enough money and eventually was forced to quit.
I was shocked to find out that Goodwill exploits a 75-year-old legal loophole to pay disabled workers like me far less than the minimum wage — some make as little as .22 cents an hour. I want to be paid a living wage for meaningful work, and other workers like me deserve the same.
Goodwill determines how much they pay disabled workers using “time studies” where an employee uses a stopwatch to time how long it takes to complete a certain task and compares it to a non-disabled worker. Time studies were the most stressful part of my job because I never knew what the task would be and how they would turn out. My husband even had his wages lowered because of a time study, and they could cut it again.
My husband and I feel trapped by Goodwill. They know they can pay disabled workers like us less and less because we have fewer places to go. Goodwill recently came under scrutiny for this practice of paying disabled people pennies for their labor, and defended it. I know they are vulnerable right now and could be pressured to change this practice if enough people join me in speaking out.
Thank you for your support.
Sheila Leighland
Great Falls, Montana
Same Difference 