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Yesterday, I went into my local Goodwill, and as I always notice, there's a ton of in-store
signage talking about how great Goodwill is for the economy,
how it gives people jobs, how it's saving the city, all these different types of things.
It's a very odd situation. You don't normally think of a retail institution as being the
things that's gonna save the economy and give people jobs, let alone a resale shop.
So I looked on glassdoor, which is a website where you can see insider information about
places that employ people. Just google 'glassdoor' as one door, and then
whatever location you're thinking of. When I looked up Goodwill, I thought maybe
it would have higher wages, benefits, whatever the case may be, but no!
People working there make about minimum wage. That's a very odd thing to brag about.
"Yes! We run a shop, and we pay people as little as we can, and that's saving the city!"
I don't understand that. Normally when you look at these jobs that
pay very little, there's two perspectives on it:
One is they shouldn't pay very little, and we should take steps towards encouraging society
to pay these people more, which is sometimes enacted by laws like minimum
wage laws, sometimes you do it by looking for the places that offer higher wages and
supporting them, places like Lowe's or Costco, but if you're
paying minimum wage, you're not actually, really doing a lot to help people.
Granted, it's better than just sitting on unemployment, but if you're paying them as
little as possible, you're doing it out of self-interest.
You're just working as a business, and it's not like the 'job-creators' of society are
creating jobs out of the goodness of their hearts,
they're doing it so that they can run their business and make a profit.
That's not charitable, why are you promoting that?
And the second perspective on these jobs is they shouldn't be something you build your
career on. "Why should someone working at Wal-Mart expect
to make fifteen dollars an hour with healthcare benefits, pension benefits, etcetera?"
And I think that that makes a lot of sense. The concern is that there are a lot of people
in society who simply cannot get a real job, but I can understand saying that it's not
Wal-Mart's job or obligation to give people these benefits.
If that's Goodwill's stance, then why are they touting that they're giving people jobs!?
I don't understand what they're arguing. I don't understand why this is such a moment
of proud accomplishment for Goodwill. I think it's just a buzzword to make themselves
look better and try and get you to shop more. "Hey, buy more stuff, because we're job creators!"
Thank you.