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Friday, June 21, 2013
Jillian Berman — Some Disabled Goodwill Workers Earn As Little As 22 Cents An Hour As Execs Earn Six Figures: Report
I don't think that this is necessarily a good criticism of Goodwill. Management improved vastly after the board decided to hire professional management and their operations reflect this. I have some knowledge of hiring the handicapped since a close friend was deeply committed to this and served for a time on the president's commission on hiring the handicapped. It's an area that is not focused on enough, and as a result a lot people are not only handicapped but socially disadvantaged because of it. Giving them something constructive to do brings great benefit to their lives. Many of these people are essentially unemployable, and it takes commitment and compassion to give them a helping hand. Goodwill should be commended for its efforts in this. Instead, there is a misdirected campaign on to discredit this effort.
The Huffington Post
Some Disabled Goodwill Workers Earn As Little As 22 Cents An Hour As Execs Earn Six Figures: Report
Jillian Berman
Finally, a wonderful example of the the true essence of private "free market" charity.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of private "free market" charity wrt the handicapped. Fact is that govt doesn't provide jobs for handicapped people, especially jobs that allow them access to the social benefit of belonging to the workforce. It's a big deal psychologically instead of being "housed."
ReplyDeleteGovt and private business do cooperate on this to provide work for the handicapped that are gainfully employable. Business often bears an extra cost and loss of efficiency in this, but business leader with a sense of social responsibility undertake it anyway, even though they generally don't get much publicity or credit for it.
But some handicapped are not gainfully employable. Non-profits like Goodwill create environments where they can be employed although at a cost to the employer. This is not practical for private companies, so it is left either to charity, such as churches, or non-profit firms like Goodwill. The non-profit firms play an important role in this regard.
One can argue that government should be the one providing this service. Maybe so, but that's not the case in the US. Governments support non-profits through tax-exempt status and let them handle the operations. I don't think that this is necessarily a poor way to go about it.
Those with ideas for addressing the issue differently are welcome to propose them. In may view this is a matter of importance that most people seem to be less than well-aware of.
There are a lot of handicapped people out there both physically and mentally. Many physically handicapped people are gainfully employable if employers are willing to make the effort. Often the mentally handicapped are not gainfully employable and they are the issue in particular. Goodwill employs many people who are mentally handicapped, for instance.