In the national disability rights community Goodwill has a very poor reputation for several reasons. Many executives get outrageous compensation while they pay their captive workforce doing vocational rehab deeply minimum wages to work sorting and working on the sales floor. I know ‘clients’ who are working, purportedly training for ‘real’ work for $2.43 an hour.That is close to indentured servitude if you are disabled and that is the only work you can get.
From flpglaw.com:
Back in 2016, the Omaha World-Herald ran a devastating series of articles about Goodwill Omaha, the well-known 501(c)(3) that is one of Nebraska’s biggest charities.
Perhaps the most damaging element in this expose was the compensation level of the group’s top executives: They were the highest paid of Goodwill organizations in the United States at the same time that the workers of the thrift shop giant were paid minimum wage. In 2014, for instance, CEO Frank McGree earned almost $935,000 in total compensation. Other executives earned over $100,000 a year, although data show that the agency was serving a steadily declining number of people.
Among those taking notice two years ago was Nebraska’s attorney general, Doug Peterson. “Our investigation of Goodwill Omaha began following a series of articles about the organization….which raised a number of questions about whether Goodwill Omaha was being operated appropriately as a nonprofit corporation ….The questions raised about possible misconduct were serious and warranted a closer look.”