Unfair Advantage

Hold my hand and walk with me.

We must break the back of social inequity;

We must empower every individual with a disability

To live with dignity in an inclusive society.

William E. Lightbourne

It was on July 30, 1990 that the Americans With Disabilities Act became law, granting those with disabilities the same rights as everyone else. Individuals with disabilities are protected by the ADA in the same basis as those with racial, ethnic, and religious differences.

Even though the ADA has done many wonderful things, many still believe that people with disabilities are somehow inferior.

Disability workers generally earn less than their able-bodied coworkers, often for doing the same jobs and tasks. Where is the fairness in that?

In comparison with workers without disabilities, full-time, year-round workers with disabilities earn 87 cents for every dollar they earn.

Workers with disabilities, however, earn significantly less than their non-disabled counterparts when working similar jobs and schedules.

The overall disparity in median earnings can be reduced by half when the occupation mix is accounted for for workers with or without disabilities.

There are a few occupations that stand out as exceptions, with notable differences in median earnings between the two groups. Generally, both people with disabilities and those without disabilities earn much higher median earnings in these occupations.

Among them are:

Chief Executives.

Lawyers.

Marketing and sales managers.

Financial analysts.

Despite this, median earnings for physicians and surgeons, who rank at the top of the earnings list, are not different between those with a disability and those without.

Generally, employees with disabilities earn 87 cents for every dollar earned by their able-bodied counterparts. That may not seem like much, but it speaks volumes about how much an employer values them. I find it unfortunate that we are still discussing this issue over thirty years after the ADA was passed!

Goodwill Industries prides itself on hiring those with disabilities, giving them an opportunity to earn a living, but their disabled employees are grossly underpaid. There have been wages as low as $0.22, $0.38, and $0.41 an hour in Pennsylvania, so ridiculously low that no one could survive.

The sad thing about Goodwill’s ridiculously low wages is that they are legal. Because the loophole is seventy-seven years old, which needs to be fixed urgently, the employees are grossly underpaid, but the Goodwill CEOs are well above a living wage, between $450,000 and $750,00. Regardless of the actual amounts, it’s far better than the penalties being imposed on many employees.

In 2024, the cost of living has skyrocketed, great advances have been made, we have the technology to meet someone across the world through Zoom or FaceTime, and our cell phones are computers in our pockets, but thirty-four years after the ADA was passed we still hear about companies paying disabled employees pennies per hour in some cases? A company that was supposed to be founded to help the very people they are taking advantage of.

A nearly 75-year-old law, the Fair Labor Act of 1938, allows employers to pay those with disabilities less than minimum wage. Why is it still in effect? Unfortunately, stores like Goodwill often pay workers far less than the minimum wage, even though they claim to offer them meaningful work opportunities.

Does Goodwill alone engage in this practice? No, other companies apply the Fair Labor Act of 1938 to justify paying less than minimum wage to disabled workers.

© Michelle R Kidwell

September.08.2022

Revised June.13.2024