[Nfbmo] Good Will Protest

Thu Aug 23 15:55:12 UTC 2012

Protestors demand equal pay for the disabled

Published: Wednesday, August 22, 2012 

by Rita Manno
for The Central Record

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) wants people to know that some
businesses pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.
It is legal to do so. But it is immoral, they say.

That's why the NFB will be demonstrating at 100 sites across the country on
Saturday, Aug. 25, to draw attention to why Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA) should be repealed.

The NFB has chosen Goodwill Industries as an example of an organization that
pays less than the minimum wage to some disabled workers.

Demonstrations in South Jersey will take place at Goodwill businesses in
Pennsauken in Camden County and Woodbury in Gloucester County from 11 a.m.
to 1 p.m. The NFB hopes to convince Goodwill to stop the practice of paying
less than the minimum wage. 

Anil Lewis, director of strategic communications for NFB, says the goal is
two-fold - first to put public pressure on Goodwill to adopt a corporate
policy that ensures all disabled workers make minimum wage ($7.25 an hour)
and to educate the public about this section of the Fair Labor Standards Act
that makes lower wages possible.

NFB, along with other national organizations, chose Goodwill as an example
in part because the CEO Jim Gibbons is blind and makes $500,000 a year.

"You would think that he would want to give his disabled workers the same
opportunities he's had," said Lewis.

"Very few, if any, disabled or non-disabled individuals acquire a
competitive job skill through performing menial tasks in sheltered,
segregated, subminimum-wage work environments. We must set higher
expectations and provide real training and support for all people to be
fully participating members of society," he said.

Lewis said that there is a bi-partisan bill in Congress with 81 co-sponsors
to repeal the section of FLSA that permits lower wages. The bill would allow
for a three-year phase-in period to reach full minimum wage.

Paying people with disabilities less than minimum wage has more
repercussions than just financial. according to Lewis, who makes several
points: 

. 33 percent of students in kindergarten through grade 12 have sheltered
subminimum-wage workshops as their vocational goal. We have given up on them
before they have been provided a proper education and they will never reach
their full potential.

. Approximately 95 percent of people employed in a subminimum-wage work
environment will never transition out of that environment. They will never
receive the necessary training and support to be productive employees. They
will remain beneficiaries of public programs, never to become fully
participating citizens.

. Approximately half of workers with disabilities who are employed under a
special wage certificate (issued under the Fair Labors Act) earn less than
half of the federal minimum wage.

Goodwill has 165 local, autonomous, community-based organizations in the
U.S. and Canada. They employ 105,000 people, of whom 30,000 have
disabilities.

In a statement released in Maryland where the NFB also demonstrated in June,
Goodwill said it "supports changes in the FLSA so long as the right of
people with disabilities to maintain employment of their choice is
preserved.

"Across the U.S., 79 percent of people with disabilities are not working
today. The Special Minimum Wage Certificate is an important resource to
employ individuals with significant disabilities," who might not otherwise
be employed. 