i wouldn’t boycott goodwill. they do this so people who are disabled to the point of not being able to work other jobs can provide labor while still making little enough that they are able to get the maximum amount of social security. if they made over a certain amount, they could no longer get the maximum amount of social security disability

Just chiming in to agree- as a disabled person, Goodwill actually works with it’s employees to moderate hours worked/money per hour so that they don’t get a reduction in benefits, or lose them entirely. There has been some bad press about Goodwill— but they are far preferable to, say, Salvation Army, and I know first hand how much good they do for under served communities.

Thank you to both of you for speaking up about this. I worked for Goodwill for 5 years (not in their retail program, you’d be amazed at the number of support programs they have for many marginalized groups) and there is a gross misunderstanding about how that particular program works. It’s a federal program with heavy regulation and requirements and most of the workers who are in the program are in there as part of their multiple therapies supported by Goodwill (although the program is completely optional - no one is forced to work for GW if they are part of their other programs). The people who are employed under section 14(c) are encouraged to seek work outside of the program, some use it as training for employment elsewhere or within Goodwill outside of section 14(c) but the majority of people who are working under 14(c) would have zero chance of employment anywhere else because of severe impairments (some physical, but mostly developmental), and are heavily supervised and assisted on the job to give them a place where they can socialize and interact with other people like most people do at their jobs….it’s not really about the work, it’s more about giving these people a chance to experience a workplace.

This is me trying to put this into a nutshell, but it’s a very complex issue and I can see and understand the POV from both sides of it, but I do believe it is a good program and helps a lot of people who would otherwise not get that experience. (and for the record, yes, I am disabled but no, I was not employed under section 14(c) w/ Goodwill. There are many disabled workers working for GW who are not working for them under 14(c).)

here’s more info on this! 
I realize I kind of just answered it without looking into it further or really thinking about it in depth.  tbh, Goodwill was already a place that I tried to not frequent too regularly, but hearing ‘22 cents for disabled works’ immediately just pushed that over the edge in my head without thinking critically about it.

It’s nice to hear an actual explanation of this and thank you to the people who chimed in on it.  

I used to work with an agency that helped people with disabilities find jobs in the community, in a city which is trying to make their minimum wage something approaching a living wage. Some people wanted to get off their benefits and would happily take jobs at or above minimum wage. Other people wanted to keep their benefits (often people who were disabled in ways that made many sectors and work environments difficult to navigate), and for these people, Goodwill was a really good fit. They have a good track record of working with people with disabilities, and their pay was sufficiently low that people could keep their benefits while working.

Oh my god this makes so much sense and I knew about programs like that, and I didn’t know that Goodwill was involved.