Continuing with my experience working in a Goodwill Store in 1970 as my two year Conscientious Objector Alternative Service:
In my pre-Goodwill life, I had always thought highly of Goodwill Industries; how they helped the handicapped people and how they repaired and recycling items. However, once I was employed there for a while, I began to see Goodwill Industries in a different, and darker light. It was distressing for me to learn about the actual pay that most of the handicapped people received.
Indiana State law required Goodwill Industries to pay me at least the minimum wage (1.65/hr), and when I began my Alternative Service, I had assumed that minimum wage was also what all my handicapped coworkers were also paid, but that wasn’t the case, because Goodwill Industries was classified as a “Sheltered Workshop”, and as such, they were exempt from having to pay their employees minimum wage. As a result those handicapped employees were paid a lot less than minimum wage, some of them only got paid as little as $.35/hr.
Not only was their hourly pay so miserly, but like me, they only worked a 30 hour work week, so their take home pay was extremely low. Someone making $.35/hr, earned $10.50/week, and $546/year. My minimum wage income earned me a whopping $49.50/week, and $2,574/year. It was so low I was forced into living in the ghetto, and I couldn't imagine how the handicapped people were able to survive.
I was further incensed to learn that all the non-handicapped big shot management types in the front office were being paid huge salaries, comparable to management salaries in private corporations. The non-handicapped, Head Honcho’s salary was $30,000 a year. It all seemed so typical of hardcore capitalism to me. The poor people who did all the work, and were trotted out in front of the public when donations were needed, and they were only paid peanuts, while at the same time, the smooth-talking business-suited fat cat executives, were living the high life with their executive salaries and expense accounts.
The most rewarding part of my job, was manning the “Employee Store” which we opened every day during the lunch period. every day at noon, I sat at the in-house sales table where the employees would bring the items they wished to purchase. Workers were allowed to buy things from the warehouse floor, before the items were sent off to the stores.
On a form, I recorded the price of the item they wished to buy, along with the name of the purchaser, I attached a label to the item, showing the name of the purchaser. These products were then put on a cart which at closing time was wheeled to the exit door. When the employee clocked out, they would pick up their purchases as they left for home. The price of the item was automatically deducted from the worker’s pay.
Being a pricer put me in a position where I (without official authorization) could give the employees a bit of a bargain to help make up for their ridiculously low pay. If they wanted to buy an item that I had priced, I made sure that I lowered the price as much as I could get away with, in order to help them out. It seemed the right thing to do, since they were being paid so little, and didn’t have much.
Below is a copy of the “Suggestion,” my smart-aleck self filled out and submitted on my last day of Alternative Service.
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