[blindkid] Fwd: Re: NFB: [State-affiliate-leadership-list] NBC Rock Center: Some disabled workers paid just pennies an hour - and it's l egal
Carol Castellano
carol_castellano at verizon.net
Fri Jun 21 15:04:36 UTC 2013
>>Forwarding this info.
Carol
>>
>>Greetings to all!
>>
>>Please share the following to all family, friends, neighbors and co-workers.
>>The show airs tonight at 10 pm on NBC.
>>The message follows.
>>
>>Some disabled workers paid just pennies an hour and it's legal
>>By Anna Schecter, Producer, NBC News
>>One of the nation's best-known charities is
>>paying disabled workers as little as 22 cents
>>an hour, thanks to a 75-year-old legal loophole
>>that critics say needs to be closed.
>>
>>Goodwill Industries, a multibillion-dollar
>>company whose executives make six-figure
>>salaries, is among the nonprofit groups
>>permitted to pay thousands of disabled workers
>>far less than minimum wage because of a federal
>>law known as Section 14 (c). Labor Department
>>records show that some Goodwill workers in
>>Pennsylvania earned wages as low as 22, 38 and 41 cents per hour in 2011.
>>
>>"If they really do pay the CEO of Goodwill
>>three-quarters of a million dollars, they
>>certainly can pay me more than they're paying,"
>>said Harold Leigland, who is legally blind and
>>hangs clothes at a Goodwill in Great Falls, Montana for less than minimum wage.
>>
>>
>>"It's a question of civil rights," added his
>>wife, Sheila, blind from birth, who quit her
>>job at the same Goodwill store when her already
>>low wage was cut further. "I feel like a
>>second-class citizen. And I hate it." Section
>>14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which
>>was passed in 1938, allows employers to obtain
>><http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs39.pdf>special
>>minimum wage certificates from the Department
>>of Labor. The certificates give employers the
>>right to pay disabled workers according to
>>their abilities, with no bottom limit to the wage.
>>
>>
>>
>>Most,
>><http://www.dol.gov/whd/specialemployment/BusinessCertList.htm>but
>>not all, special wage certificates are held by
>>nonprofit organizations like Goodwill that then
>>set up their own so-called "sheltered
>>workshops" for disabled employees, where
>>employees typically perform manual tasks like hanging clothes.
>>
>>
>>
>>The non-profit certificate holders can also
>>place employees in outside, for-profit
>>workplaces including restaurants, retail
>>stores, hospitals and even Internal Revenue
>>Service centers. Between the sheltered
>>workshops and the outside businesses, more than
>>216,000 workers are eligible to earn less than
>>minimum wage because of Section 14 (c), though
>>many end up earning the full federal minimum wage of $7.25.
>>Description: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo
>>
>>
>>NBC News
>>
>>Harold Leigland, who is blind, with his guide
>>dog on the bus during his morning commute to
>>the Goodwill facility in Great Falls, Montana, where he works hanging clothing.
>>
>>When a non-profit provides Section 14 (c)
>>workers to an outside business, it sets the
>>salary and pays the wages. For example, the
>>Helen Keller National Center, a New York school
>>for the blind and deaf, has a special wage
>>certificate and has placed students in a
>>Westbury, N.Y., Applebee's franchise. The
>>employees' pay ranged from $3.97 per hour to
>>$5.96 per hour in 2010. The franchise told NBC
>>News it has also hired workers at minimum wage
>>from Helen Keller. A spokesperson for
>>Applebee's declined to comment on Section 14 (c).
>>
>>
>>
>>Helen Keller also placed several students at a
>>Barnes & Noble bookstore in Manhasset, N.Y., in
>>2010, where they earned $3.80 and $4.85 an
>>hour. A Barnes & Noble spokeswoman defended the
>>Section 14 (c) program as providing jobs to
>>"people who would otherwise not have [the opportunity to work]."
>>
>>
>>
>>Most Section 14 (c) workers are employed
>>directly by nonprofits. In 2001, the most
>>recent year for which numbers are available,
>>the GAO estimated that more than 90 percent of
>>Section 14 (c) workers were employed at nonprofit work centers.
>>
>>Critics of Section 14 (c) have focused much of
>>their ire on the nonprofits, where wages can be
>>just pennies an hour even as some of the groups
>>receive funding from the government. At one
>>workplace in Florida run by a nonprofit, some
>>employees earned one cent per hour in 2011.
>>
>>
>>
>>"People are profiting from exploiting disabled
>>workers," said Ari Ne'eman, president of the
>>Autistic Self Advocacy Network. "It is clearly
>>and unquestionably exploitation."
>>
>>
>>
>>Defenders of Section 14 (c) say that without
>>it, disabled workers would have few options. A
>>Department of Labor spokesperson said in a
>>statement to NBC News that Section 14 (c)
>>"provides workers with disabilities the
>>opportunity to be given meaningful work and receive an income."
>>
>>
>>
>>Terry Farmer, CEO of ACCSES, a trade group that
>>calls itself the "voice of disability service
>>providers," said scrapping the provision could
>>"force [disabled workers] to stay at home,"
>>enter rehabilitation, "or otherwise engage in
>>unproductive and unsatisfactory activities."
>>
>>
>>
>>Harold Leigland, however, said he feels that
>>Goodwill can pay him a low wage because the
>>company knows he has few other places to go.
>>"We are trapped," he said. "Everybody who works at Goodwill is trapped."
>>
>>
>>
>>Leigland, a 66-year-old former massage
>>therapist with a college degree, currently earns $5.46 per hour in Great Falls.
>>
>>His wages have risen and fallen based on
>><http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/14c/18c4.htm>"time
>>studies," the method nonprofits use to
>>calculate the salaries of Section 14 (c)
>>workers. Staff members use a stopwatch to
>>determine how long it takes a disabled worker
>>to complete a task. That time is compared with
>>how long it would take a person without a
>>disability to do the same task. The nonprofit
>>then uses a formula to calculate a salary,
>>which may be equal to or less than minimum
>>wage. The tests are repeated every six months.
>>Description: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo
>>
>>
>>NBC News
>>
>>Harold Leigland works at the Goodwill facility
>>in Great Falls, Montana, where he earns $5.46 an hour.
>>
>>Leigland's pay has been higher than $5.46, but
>>it has also dropped down to $4.37 per hour, based on the time-study results.
>>He said he believes Goodwill makes the time
>>studies harder when they want his wage to be lower.
>>
>>"Sometimes the test is easier than others. It
>>depends on if, as near as I can figure, they
>>want your wage to go up or down. It's that simple," he said.
>>
>>
>>
>>His wife, Sheila, 58, spent four years hanging
>>clothes at the Great Falls Goodwill for about
>>$3.50 an hour. She said the time study was one
>>of the most degrading and stressful parts about
>>her job. "You never know how it's going to come
>>out. It stressed me out a lot," she said.
>>
>>
>>
>>She quit last summer when she returned to work
>>after knee surgery and found that her wage had
>>been lowered to $2.75 per hour, a training rate.
>>
>>
>>
>>"At $2.75 it would barely cover my cost of
>>getting to work. I wouldn't make any money," she said.
>>
>>
>>
>>Harold said he believes Goodwill can afford to
>>pay him minimum wage, based on the salaries
>>paid to Goodwill executives. While according to
>>the company's own figures about 4,000 of the
>>30,000 disabled workers Goodwill employs at 69
>>franchises are currently paid below minimum
>>wage, salaries for the CEOs of those franchises
>>that hold special minimum wage certificates totaled almost $20 million in 2011.
>>
>>
>>
>>In 2011 the CEO of Goodwill Industries of
>>Southern California took home $1.1 million in
>>salary and deferred compensation. His
>>counterpart in Portland, Oregon, made more than
>>$500,000. Salaries for CEOs of the roughly 150
>>Goodwill franchises across America total more than $30 million.
>>
>>
>>
>>Goodwill International CEO Jim Gibbons, who was
>>awarded $729,000 in salary and deferred
>>compensation in 2011, defended the executive pay.
>>
>>
>>
>>"These leaders are having a great impact in
>>terms of new solutions, in terms of innovation,
>>and in terms of job creation," he said.
>>
>>Gibbons also defended time studies, and the
>>whole Section 14 (c) approach. He said that for
>>many people who make less than minimum wage,
>>the experience of work is more important than the pay.
>>
>>
>>
>>"It's typically not about their livelihood.
>>It's about their fulfillment. It's about being
>>a part of something. And it's probably a small
>>part of their overall program," he said.
>>
>>
>>
>>And Goodwill and the organizations that run the
>>sheltered workshops are not alone in their
>>support for Section 14 (c). In many cases, the
>>families of the workers who have severe
>>disabilities say their loved ones enjoy the
>>work experience, enjoy getting a paycheck, and the amount is of no consequence.
>>Description: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo
>>
>>
>>NBC News
>>
>>Sheila Leigland, who is blind, with her guide
>>dog. She quit her job at Goodwill in Great
>>Falls, Montana, after her hourly wage was lowered to $2.75.
>>
>>"I feel really good about it. I don't have to
>>worry so much about him," said Fran Davidson,
>>whose son Jeremy has worked at Goodwill in
>>Great Falls, Montana, for more than a decade.
>>"I know he's not getting picked on, and he's in
>>a safe place. He enjoys what he's doing, and
>>he's happy, and that's what we like for our
>>kids." Jeremy started out working for a
>>sub-minimum wage but did well on his last time
>>study and is currently earning $7.80 an hour, Montana's minimum wage.
>>
>>
>>
>>But foes of Section 14 (c) have hopes for a new
>>bill that's now before Congress that would
>>repeal Section 14 (c) and make sub-minimum wages illegal across the board.
>>
>>
>>
>>"Meaningful work deserves fair pay," the
>>sponsor of the bill, Rep. Gregg Harper,
>>R.-Miss., told NBC News. "This dated provision
>>unjustly prohibits workers with disabilities
>>from reaching their full potential."
>>
>>
>>
>>The bill is opposed by trade associations for
>>the employers of the disabled, and past
>>attempts to change the law have failed. But
>>Marc Maurer, president of the National
>>Federation of the Blind and a foe of the
>>sheltered workshop system, is cautiously
>>optimistic that this time the bill will pass,
>>and end what he called a "two-tiered system."
>>
>>
>>
>>That system, explained Maurer, says "'Americans
>>who have disabilities aren't as valuable as
>>other people,' and that's wrong. These folks
>>have value. We should recognize that value."
>>
>>Monica Alba contributed to this report.
>>
>>Video:
>><http://www.nbcnews.com/video/rock-center/52257275/>http://www.nbcnews.com/video/rock-center/52257275/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Mr. Anil Lewis, M.P.A.
>>
>>Eliminating Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities
>><http://www.nfb.org/fairwages>http://www.nfb.org/fairwages
>>Work: 410-659-9314 ext. 2374
>>Twitter: @anillife
>>
>>
>>Forwarded by:
>>
>>Brian A. Mackey
>>
>>Brian A. Mackey
>>Mackey Enterprises LLC
>>National Federation of the Blind of NJ, Secretary
>>609-953-6988
>><mailto:bmackey88 at gmail.com>bmackey88 at gmail.com
>>
>>Happy are those who dream dreams and are
>>willing to pay the price to make those dreams come true.
>> - Vince Papale
>>
>>
>
>Carol Castellano
>Parents of Blind Children-NJ
>Director of Programs
>National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
>973-377-0976
>carol_castellano at verizon.net
>www.blindchildren.org
>www.nfb.org/parents-and-teachers
More information about the BlindKid
mailing list