{"id":44649,"date":"2013-06-24T08:20:37","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T07:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/shocking-rip-off-by-do-gooders-goodwill-pays-workers-with-disabilities-as-little-as-22-cents-an-hour\/44649\/"},"modified":"2013-06-24T08:20:37","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T07:20:37","slug":"shocking-rip-off-by-do-gooders-goodwill-pays-workers-with-disabilities-as-little-as-22-cents-an-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/shocking-rip-off-by-do-gooders-goodwill-pays-workers-with-disabilities-as-little-as-22-cents-an-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocking Rip-off by &#039;Do Gooders&#039;: Goodwill pays workers with disabilities as little as 22 cents an hour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span class=\"field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden\"><span class=\"field-items\"><span class=\"field-item even\"><span class=\"date-display-single\">June 21, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<\/em> \u00a0|  <\/p>\n<div class=\"article_insert_container\">\n<div id=\"insert_ilikethis\">\n<div id=\"block-altsubscription-subscribe-node-inline\" class=\"block block-altsubscription first odd count-1\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<div id=\"insert_ilikethis\">\n<p>Like this article?<\/p>\n<p>Join our email list:<\/p>\n<h3>Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- \/.block -->\n\t      <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>    <!-- BODY --><\/p>\n<p>In 2011, the multibillion-dollar nonprofit\u00a0Goodwill Industries paid Pennsylvania workers with disabilities wages as low as 22, 38 and 41 cents an hour, according to Labor Department records obtained by NBC News. In 2010, an Applebee\u2019s in a tony New York suburb hired hearing- and visually impaired employees through a placement program with the Helen Keller National Center and paid them between\u00a0$3.97 per hour and $5.96, well below the state minimum wage of $7.25. <\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s perfectly legal due to a Depression-era loophole in federal labor law, as NBC  <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/openchannel.nbcnews.com\/_news\/2013\/06\/20\/19062348-some-disabled-workers-paid-just-pennies-an-hour-and-its-legal?lite\">reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was passed in 1938, allows employers to obtain\u00a0special minimum wage certificates\u00a0from 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\u2026 <\/p>\n<p>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. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>While employers like Goodwill defend the practice as providing jobs to people who need and want them, disability and labor rights advocates have called the loophole exploitative, saying it traps workers in a \u201ctwo-tiered\u201d system that says \u201cAmericans who have disabilities aren\u2019t as valuable as other people,\u201d as Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, told NBC. \u201cThat\u2019s wrong. These folks have value. We should recognize that value,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nfb.org\/fair-wages\">bill<\/a>\u00a0currently being considered in Congress could repeal Section 14 (c) and mandate employers fairly compensate all workers, but it has faced fierce opposition from trade\u00a0associations\u00a0representing employers who benefit from the loophole. \u201cMeaningful work deserves fair pay,\u201d bill sponsor Rep. Gregg Harper, R.-Miss., told NBC. \u201cThis dated provision unjustly prohibits workers with disabilities from reaching their full potential.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on: <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedblitz.com\/~\/42633969\/0\/alternet~Shocking-Ripoff-by-Do-Gooders-Goodwill-pays-workers-with-disabilities-as-little-as-cents-an-hour\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Shocking Rip-off by &#039;Do Gooders&#039;: Goodwill pays workers with disabilities as little as 22 cents an hour\">AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 21, 2013 \u00a0| Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. In 2011, the multibillion-dollar nonprofit\u00a0Goodwill Industries paid Pennsylvania workers with disabilities wages as low as 22, 38 and 41 cents an hour, according to Labor Department records obtained by NBC News. In 2010, an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}