Any time I shopped (a few times a week) there were 3-5 workers from the assisted living home nearby. They were all VERY nice but a few of them accomplished almost nothing - those workers were paired with someone else who did 95+% of the task (shelving, bagging, etc).

I talked with many of them often - some really liked talking and I was happy to chat as long as they wanted. I met the driver/supervisor from the home - I wanted to know if I was talking with them too much and keeping them from work and he wanted to know if they were bugging me ("no" in both cases). He told me this was the highlight of their life and it was great that the store hired them. It gave them a job and paycheck and made them feel normal even though the paycheck wasn't much.

I don't know if the store was paying under minimum wage. But they were not getting their money's worth whatever they paid (I knew many teens and retirees who wanted those jobs and would be able to do more). The store really was not getting ANYTHING from 2 of the workers. But the workers were getting a lot of satisfaction (according to the supervisor from the home) and people like me got a lot by interacting with disabled people more than I ever had.

I don't know where the line is. Some companies will abuse any police/rule/law. But there certainly are cases where paying a disabled working less than minimum wage is a good thing for the worker. For every company that abuses these rules, there are companies who will opt to hire an able-bodied worker over a disabled worker if they have to pay minimum wage. I'd prefer to error on the side of the line that allows those who really aren't able to do much to still have a job.

another thing to them.

off my donations.

clothes closets and food pantries, and they do directly help those in need. I remember during a very cold spell last winter--one of the churches had racks of outerwear and things right out on the street. the volunteers were very nice. my things all go to them.

stuff off with them before.

I donate to a little store that operates for abused women who are trying to re-enter the job market. It's a regular store that sells stuff to the public, but for the women and their kids, they shop for free. Everything there is donated..even the employees there are volunteers.

These women are in shelters and many fled in the night with just the clothes on their backs.

Another good way to donate is to Foster Family organizations. Not everyone fosters kids "for the check", and and organization out here accepts donations and when they have an accumulation, they hold a big parking lot sale at a church to raise money for things the kids may need.

I prefer to donate to things that directly affect people.. Salvations Army & Goodwill are too "big/corporate" to suit my tastes.

And that's where my old clothes, etc go.

Its not a national company, there are probably hundreds of regional "chapters" that are completely independent. The goodwill I worked for (goodwill of central az) sucked, the upper mgmt drove company cars while the thousands of full time store employees went without health insurance. They always claimed it was too expensive, but all the managers and office staff had health insurance.

My store produced 55-85 thousand dollars per MONTH in net profit, they could have paid for insurance just from my stores profits.

Let's see now, how many are on the list of stores and companies to be boycotted?

500? 1,000? 10,000?

Those with disabilities (most of them) get SSI.

Here in Sheboygan we have a (sort of) factory called RCS, Rehabilitation Center of Sheboygan.

Most of those working there are on disability.

They earn "piecework" wages for companies such as Kohler.

Should I boycott my toilet?

One of their main things was training people to upholster furniture. They had some fairly decent quality old pieces, couches and chairs, that were recovered with donated (and often very ugly) fabric. The work was usually very good and if they had selected better looking fabric the furniture could have sold for several times what they asked. In a college town, even the ugly stuff sold - a couch with good condition if ugly fabric would sell for as little as $35!

I knew of at least two local upholstery shops that hired workers that had been trained at Goodwill - that is how good their training was back then.

They also training their workers in retail store jobs - restocking, cashier, customer service. Sometimes check out was slow but it was always accurate since the workers were very careful. I used to shop at that Goodwill regularly and still have some of the kitchen utensils I bought there.

At some point they stopped doing the training and hired non-disabled workers to do essential jobs. Often those people were less than nice to the disabled workers to the point I felt uncomfortable being in the store. I stopped going to Goodwill at all.

When they actually did training, I could see paying less than minimum wage until the workers are qualified for regular jobs. But if the people are doing real jobs, they should be earning a real wage. If the program is simply a way to keep the disabled busy and supervised, then call it that, don't pretend it is something else!

Now if I want to shop at a thrift or used goods store, I tend to go to the one run by the local women's shelter.

In my area the last "sheltered workshop" closed last year. This nonprofit made a variety of products, and paid the employees based on their productivity and the degree of supports necessary for them to work.

Many of these people with a variety of disabilities, mostly cognitive and developmental are now unemployed, watching TV in their apartments.

Those of us for whom a job is simply a paycheck tend to undervalue the social, identity and structure that work gives to our lives.

Second, there are strict limits on how much money a person with a disability can earn without jeopardizing their social security and medicare benefits. A full time job at minimum wage is disqualifies a person for SSI or SSDI.

Our employment situation is a giant darwinian game of musical chairs. Absent some leveling mechanism, the least fit will always be left standing.

It is important for the department of labor to carefully monitor and audit the wages paid, but the law still serves a useful purpose.

There were for-profit manufacturers that had work to be done that could be done at the center where my father worked. For example, the manufacturer would provide a lot of model airplane parts -- a box of fuselages, a box of wings, etc. -- to be sorted out into individual model airplane kits for sale.

The people my father worked with could do this work. They just couldn't do it as efficiently as most people. If the center had been required to pay them minimum wage, then the prices it would have had to charge the outside companies would have been noncompetitive. Those companies, who weren't looking to help the disabled but just wanted their model airplane kits assembled, would have placed the contracts elsewhere. The exemption from the minimum-wage law was the only way the project could go forward.

nuance into this thread.

Every issue has multiple sides, as you have so deftly explained.

My mother-in-law works for Goodwill here in Florida & she make 3 dollars an hour above minimum wage (she is 83 and disabled her only job is to hang clothes).

Also here in Lee County Goodwill runs a apartment complex for the disabled & these people would be out on the street (homeless) if not for Goodwill.

I cannot speak about this article, I can only speak of my first hand knowledge of the Goodwill's in my area.

This article certainly does not reflect the Goodwill in my area.

My best advice instead of reading a article, check out your local GoodWill's ask questions & see for yourself.

The CEO of Goodwill Industries International is not Mark Curran, nor does he make $2.3 million a year.

The current President and CEO of Goodwill is Jim Gibbons, who in 2011 received a total reported compensation of $725,000.

Only $725K, as if that in itself is not obscene? My, what a worthy cause. I can certainly understand that, after having to scrape by on less than 3/4 of a million dollars a year, it is no wonder that they can't pay the opulent sum of minimum wage.

Charities in America, like most everything else, have become nothing but scams and cash extraction machines. Take the time and do your own giving, at least you'll know where it goes and that 100% of it is well used.