Read on Twitter
I just came to think of the summer I spent doing an “internship” at a farm, earning $1.60/hour in some of the hardest work I’ve done in my life. There were a handful of 13 year olds working there, but the rest of us were disabled people who couldn’t get a job doing anything else.
I spent a whole summer waking up at 5:30 to make it to work by 6:30. We weren’t allowed to have phones on us, not even in our bags, so I had to leave it in my car, because they’d search our bags sometimes. If we were even a minute late, we’d be written up. 3 times and we’re fired
A whole summer of that, 25-30 hours a week, and I left at the end of that summer with a $250 check. I was 17 and all my friends were working jobs as cashiers or nannies, earning minimum wage or more, and here I was pulling weeds in the sun for 8 hours and leaving with $13.
All this because employers took one look at me and decided that someone like me would be more trouble than I was worth, couldn’t handle basic tasks, wouldn’t be able to work a real job. Instead I got surveillance, compliance training, and scrubbing lettuce until my fingers bled.
I took the “job” because I had no other options, because it was either that or sit at home, alone, with no social interaction or anything to keep me occupied. I took it because I knew that no one else would take me. They knew I had no options and exploited that.
Nearly all the labor on that farm came from the nearly 100 “interns”, 13-21 year olds, mostly disabled. In my group of 10, there was one other minimally speaking person, a deaf guy (with no access to an interpreter), and two people with intellectual disabilities.
I’m angry that they exploited us like that, that they profited off our labor while claiming to be offering “employment skills training”. And I’m angry that I had no other choice but to do it.
People deserve real, competitive pay for their work. Even if they’re young. Even if they’re disabled. Even if they need some support to perform that work. None of that takes away their right to fair pay.
