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Brian Williams
It's a part of American life, when something is no longer useful to you,

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you give it to Goodwill. You drop it in the Goodwill box,

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perhaps in the supermarket parking lot near you,

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and you've then done something good, with something you no longer consider good.

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You may know that Goodwill donation centers employ disabled workers,

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but you may not realize that some of those workers are legally exempt from minimum wage protection.

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That means that some end up making just pennies per hour.

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It is legal, but tonight, Harry Smith takes on the question of fairness.

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Harry Smith: Goodwill, a place where you feel good about leaving your old clothes,

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a place where you feel good about shopping in a tough economy.

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Goodwill's mission is give jobs to people who are down on their luck, or have a disability.

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Goodwill does a lot of good, no question about it.

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But in back rooms like this one, in Great Falls, Montana,

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out of sight of donors and shoppers

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there is something going on that many disabled people do not feel so good about.

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People with disabilties working for less than the federal minimum wage of

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of $7.25 an hour. There are even places in America where Goodwill workers

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earn as little as $0.22 an hour.
And because of a loophole in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938,

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it's all perfectly legal

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Sheila Leland: That's ridiculous.

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Harry Smith: Harold and Sheila Leland have been married for more than twenty years. Both are blind and both have college degrees.

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Sheila worked at the Goodwill facility in Great Falls, Montana, earning about $3.50 an hour for four years.

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She says she quit last summer when they lowered her wage to $2.75 an hour.

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Sheila Leland: At $2.75, it would barely cover my cost of getting to work. I wouldn't make any money.

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Harry Smith: They call the facility "the plant," and Harold still works there.

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It operates what's called a "sheltered workshop."

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Here the disabled get virtually guaranteed employment, but they are not guaranteed minimum wage.

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And that doesn't matter to some of the workers. Jeremy Davidson loves it here.

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Harry Smith: You love it here?

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Jeremey Davidson: I love it here, more than the world, yes. I also love NASCAR, but this and NASCAR are my two favorite things in life.

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Harry Smith: But for others, it is a dead end, a job of last resort in a world in which there are few options.

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What's your wage right now?

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$5.46 an hour.

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$5.46 an hour?

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And that could change in a few months.

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It could change because sheltered workshop wages are determined by a speed test

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every six months

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Goodwill staff use a stop watch to see how many items of clothing

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Harold can hang in a minute.

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You're allowed two mistakes, and then anything else after that

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your quality is considered poor.

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So, your perecentage of wage goes down.