Hey guys, I've been doing a lot of research recently and I'm not sure where to go with it. I want to keep my anonymity so I won't be giving my name or location, but otherwise the information is easily accessible.
I work for a special needs company, called Easterseals. It's a nonprofit that genuinely does do a lot of good. However, their wages are borderline abusive. We regularly get paid less than fast food chains, our clients go without much needed services, we get hardly any training at all, and we often have to work off the clock to finish the work demanded. There have been a myriad of journals and articles written about the “DSP crisis); i.e the revolving door and lack of staff to help these people. Some companies have waitlists that last for years, meaning hundreds if not thousands of people with disabilities don't get services. I could go on and on, so let me know if you want some more examples.
The company, and many others, blame a lack of funding for the reason. They actively promote us to contact our representatives about it. I've always maintained that if we want those with disabilities to live good lives we need more government funding, and I still agree with that notion. But as I've looked into it, I'm starting to think that “funding” isn't the reason our wages are so low. I took a look at our form 990s, and from what I can see, executives of ESMW have not seen a drop in wages. Some years, executive wages go up double digit percentages, when our wages won't change at all. Our company, most years, doesn't even adjust wages to inflation, yet they give out hundreds of thousands to executives. AFSCME has called them “union busters” and I'm finding it hard to disagree. Two locations (that I know of) have tried to unionize and (I think) were shutdown.
(TL:DR) So here's my theory, I think nonprofit disabilities are using the DSP crisis to secure more government funding and use that funding to increase executive salaries. I'm not sure what to do with this information, but I think it's something that deserves to be looked into. If you are a DSP or in a related field, don't hesitate to tell me your side and what you think. I genuinely don't want my theory to be correct, but it's hard for me to think it's not.