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Wages Of Blind Workers
IntroductionHistorically, sheltered workshops struggled to pay workers a decent wage. Competition with able-bodied and mechanized labor, plus the small size of most workshops, suppressed revenues and, thereby, wages. The Bourne workshop paid better wages—and had more liberal acceptance policies—than most sheltered workshops at this time. Nonetheless, employment at a sheltered workshop provided only a basic living, if that. | |||||||||||||
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| 1 | Wages of Blind Workers. | |
| 2 | To the Editor of The New York Times: | |
| 3 | A letter appearing in The Times on the need of employment for the deaf and blind states that blind men receiving work through the Lighthouse (the headquarters of the New York Association for the Blind) receive a compensation of "only $8 a week." As a matter of fact, last week's payroll of the factory for blind men maintained by the association (the Bourne Workshop) shows that of the fifty-nine workers 14 per cent. earned over $20 and less than $28 weekly, 20 per cent. earned over $15 and less than $20, 44 per cent. earned over $10 and less than $15, 14 per cent. earned over $8 and less than $10, 4 per cent. earned over $7 and less than $8, and the remaining 4 per cent. earned between $6 and $7. Apprentices at the Bourne Workshop while learning a trade receive $6 a week; men mentally or physically unable to do productive work get a subsidy of $6 weekly and a midday dinner. The association maintains a liberal policy in that it takes into the shop men in the above groups who give no promise of becoming "earners," but who welcome the opportunity of working with their fellow-men and of relief from what would otherwise be long days spent in lonely idleness. | |
| 4 | HENRY W. GODDARD. Chairman of the New York Association for the Blind. | |
| 5 | New York. April 27, 1923 | |
