Employees reveal Planned Parenthood’s slave wages and astronomical insurance premiums
Last week I wrote about unsanitary conditions at a Pennsylvania Planned Parenthood clinic that is part of the Planned Parenthood Keystone affiliate.
Other PP Keystone employees have started adding their comments to that post, and they jibe with Lola’s* assessment of their horrible workplace environment.
But I have learned it doesn’t stop there. Wrote PP Keystone employee “CC” (combining excerpts from two comments):
I think what is really unfortunate is the employees of PPKEY work under paid and not paid market rate for there positions. then on top of it work in the unsanitary conditions, like robots, in humane ways to treat humans. Most of the employees working here are on welfare themselves that’s pretty sad….
We should try to start a union! Admin would crap there pants if we all did that, because than we would have rights!
Employee “SickOfKeystone” wrote:
PPKEY spent thousands for a Employee Appreciation at the Country Club so they could all blow they own horns. How bout instead u get me a gift card for groceries. I would appreciate that. How bout Im full time and get food stamps and cant afford insurance for my husband.
Indeed, since writing that post I have received more intel on wages and insurance premiums for PP Keystone employees.
I’m told that PP Keystone workers other than clinic managers and clinicians make only $10-11/hour and are limited to a 35-hour work week. These people include receptionists, medical assistants and “front end and back end staff,” according to my source.
As CC and SickOfKeystone indicated, this pittance of a salary qualifies PP Keystone employees with families for welfare and food stamps.
But it gets worse. It’s no wonder SickOfKeystone can’t afford insurance for her husband. Take a look at PP Keystone’s employee insurance premiums. Take note these are bi-weekly rates (UPDATE 11/13: and the deductible is $3,000):
I verified that these rates were sent to all staff by PP Keystone Director of HR and Security Erin Vellela (pictured right) in an email dated October 25, to take effect November 1, 2013, through October 31, 2014.
How a PP employee making $11/hour, or $1,540 a month, could afford insurance for his or her family is beyond me. It doesn’t seem possible. It is even less likely that any part-time employee could pull it off without paying PP money.
Meanwhile PP Keystone CEO Kim Custer, pictured right, made $133,165 in salary and compensation in 2012.
So while Planned Parenthood Federation of America CEO Cecile Richards cheerleads for Obamacare, because “every person in this country deserves a basic standard of health care coverage,” her own corporation has been a prime culprit, forcing employees already making slave wages to purchase astronomically high health insurance, or go without.
The Washington Times reported on November 4 that PPFA “employs 25,000 staff and volunteers at its 750 health clinics.”
Hello, where is the Service Employees International Union? I’m sure PP Keystone employee CC is not alone in wanting to unionize.
And shouldn’t feminists support decent wages and health insurance for workers providing healthcare to mostly women?
I’ve seen SEIU in action when it was trying to strong-arm my employer to unionize hospital workers. SEIU is a master at shakedowns. SEIU is always on the lookout for more healthcare workers to bring into its fold.
But could it be that Cecile Richards’ husband Kirk Adams, International Executive Vice President of SEIU, is keeping his friends away from PP? I’d say that’s a safe bet.
But is it good for either SEIU or PP workers? Absolutely not.
Planned Parenthood employees who may be reading this blog for the first time should check out the salaries your affiliate CEOs and PPFA corporate heads are making. You should also know PPFA has topped $1 billion in assets since 2009-2010. There’s money to pay you. Management is just keeping it for themselves.
*Pseudonym
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Thank you for investigating this. I’m sharing it as much as I can.
IRONY of ironies.
A whore house being accused by it’s employees of unfair labor practices.
What’s the world coming to?
PP CEO, Cecile Richards makes, what, a million dollars a year? I think that’s what I heard. But she can’t afford to pay her employees or clean up the place.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I really hope that this will shine the light and create a safer and better work environment. Pro-life or Pro-choice, what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. I appreciate this very much.
I can attest that I make less than 13 an hour and am what they call a mca,like manyof my coworkers we do many things there and are never rewarded, ppfa tells pp keystone we need to see patients every 5 minutes and must see at least 4 an hour. We are running our tails off for mediocre pay. Pp key feels like everyone is expendable, I feel sorry for the workers trying to work to feed there families, on pennies.do you know that they work us to the bone, and work us crazy
Thank you for noting the SEIU in this post. Hopefully the employees who see this will contact the union and work with them. Despite the SEIU’s “strong-arm tactics” they have fought with my company for better wages for home health caregivers (from 9.00/hour to 10.25/hour starting wage) and have continued to mediate on employee’s behalf against unfair and even illegal employment practices. I have also worked for a large non-union employer as a caregiver in a facility, where I’ve seen illegal actions against employees and strong-arming the employees into silence. Until employers start treating service workers with more respect and dignity and with fair practices and pay, someone’s going to have to stand up for our own rights.
Jill,
Wouldnt it be great if 40 days for Life posted job opportunities, available NOW so PP and clinic workers across the country could peruse and apply at home. Yes jobs are available on the web on job sites, but a sympathetic employer could be reaching out to clinic workers. Can you imagine the mass exodus. They could also arrange to interview after clinic hours. If someone told me about a job now Id leave tomorrow. No notice. Anything is better than this. PP employees are qualified. We are recruited from good Medical Assistant schools. We are hard workers. And we need help.
Food for thought,
great posting very very good idea. Thanks for your insight.
I am personally convinced that the ultimate plan of Obamacare will be to use the PP clinics across the nation as Obamacare clinics…Then we will be forced to go there for healthcare…
I’m all for PP employees striking and creating a work stoppage. They can join us on the picket lines. More babies saved that way.
CC and SickOfKeystone, thanks very much for your insights. FoodForThought, that is indeed food for thought! I’ll pass it along.
Lol so we care if people can’t afford health insurance, but only if they work for PP and we can complain about them. Poor people are at fault for their own bad wages and needing food stamps, but only if it’s PP who is paying them next to nothing.
Highmark is BCBS based in Pittsburgh…should see what the angle is there too. Is anyone surprised that Klan parenthood treats employees badly? They run a Luciferic organization, of course NO human matters to them except their God mammon and baby sacrifice killings.
One of the things sidewalk counselors do is tell the workers that we will help with resume writing, interviewing practice and try to help in job search as well. We have done that.
FoodForThought: I passed your suggestion along to 40 Days and Abby Johnson of And Then There Were None, a ministry that helps clinic workers transition to other jobs. They thought it was a great idea and are mulling it. Meanwhile, Abby said you could email her directly at Abby@attwn.org, and she can try to help you.
Food for Thought… I appreciate how trapped you feel but I think the PP brand is so tarnished you should get out asap. It is not a resume enhanceer. Something for those to consider who are thinking of accepting a job there.
Jack says:
November 12, 2013 at 5:17 am
Lol so we care if people can’t afford health insurance, but only if they work for PP and we can complain about them. Poor people are at fault for their own bad wages and needing food stamps, but only if it’s PP who is paying them next to nothing.
I’m not sure where you are coming from, Jack.
Most of the posters here on Jill’s board are Christians, and we care for the poor very much. However, we have differing opinions about how to best care for the poor. Many of us believe that progressive policies that promote welfare dependency are actually harmful to the poor, and especially to those who are classed as the “working poor.”
In short, some of us are convinced that more welfare = more poor Americans. You may disagree, and you may be right. But do not impune our motives. We all want to help poor families to have good jobs and good lives.
Concerning PP’s employee’s:
1) Yes, we do love them more than all of the rest of the working poor. We have been praying for them for a long time. They are our special ministry and we want to help them out, in particular. Just as we have a special love for the mothers who are trapped in desperate situations, and we have special clinics and charities to help them.
2) Planned Parenthood has enough revenues to be a Fortune 500 company. They make huge profits. They hire skilled and educated professionals, and then treat them like unskilled laborers. They can afford to pay their employees better. Instead, they exploit their employees just like they exploit their clients. They are experts at manipulating those women who feel that they are “trapped,” and then extorting them for money.
If Planned Parenthood were a real charity who really cares about the people whom they serve, they would have a huge fund-raising arm that solicits public donations. Instead, they have a huge lobbying arm that influences legislation and courts. They are profit-mining machine that specializes government payments of “welfare” programs (including Medicaid fraud) as well as selling abortions.
Good points Del,
We expect animal charities, even if staffed by unpaid volunteers and minimum wage workers, to be clean, safe, and humanely run, for both animals and their caregivers. Yet PP isn’t held to the same standard?
No one forces anyone to work for PP. However, if PP wants to present itself as an organization dedicated to women and their care, then it better put its money where its mouth is. Its not like they’re scraping pennies. Many charities run far more efficiently on much less, and do not compromise on client and staff safety.
As Carla has pointed out, a king’s ransom isn’t necessary for a facility like her CPC to be clean, appropriately furnished, and safe. I’m sure with its millions, PP can somehow manage.
Del, considering all the poor people bashing and judgements I’ve seen on this blog in my years of posting, I think that the people who actually genuinely care about most people in poverty are few and far between, regardless if they are Christian or not.
Anyway, I was just amused by the claim to care if people can afford health insurance. Because in all my arguments about healthcare here, I’ve found most of you guys REALLY don’t care if people can access health insurance or primary care. Most of you are perfectly fine if people end up in mountains of debt that they can’t climb out of, just so long as you aren’t paying for their healthcare. So I find complaints that PP employees can’t access insurance really hypocritical.
“2) Planned Parenthood has enough revenues to be a Fortune 500 company. They make huge profits. They hire skilled and educated professionals, and then treat them like unskilled laborers. They can afford to pay their employees better. Instead, they exploit their employees just like they exploit their clients. They are experts at manipulating those women who feel that they are “trapped,” and then extorting them for money.”
Well for one I’m amused by the slave wages comments, because they make more than me. I know my boss is rich, can I go whine to him about paying more and you’ll support me? Lol. How very Democrat of you guys to worry so much about people’s working conditions, sorry that it doesn’t come across as genuine.
If these people are skilled, they should have zero issue finding healthcare jobs. There are healthcare jobs literally everywhere. I am just amused that yall have so much care for the working conditions of those who chose to work at an organization that kills babies, but you guys will shrug off how Wal-Mart treats and pays it’s (much MORE trapped) workers. It’s just convenient.
*meekly* I care…
Oh, yes, it’s all coming back to me now, that survey that Jill’s site had,
I believe I chose “A. No, I don’t care if people end up with mountains of debt as long as I don’t have to pay for their insurance..”
If my memory is correct, about 75% of Jill’s readers chose that option. Yep. Sure.
Well she doesn’t need the survey if half the commenters are loud and proud with their opinions.
Yep, I’m always going on about how much I hate the poor.
Mary Helene, Jill
Quite an observation Mary Helene. There is talk, only talk of expanding PP services to include basic primary care. They want to increase revenue by being able to charge a higher fee for visits. The only way to do that legally is to expand services. They are thinking of doing basic diabetic and hypertension care. Something a midlevel clinician can do. Things that can be reversed or at least managed if caught early. Is your doctors office busy? Walkin to Planned Parenthood and get assessed. And we take Obamacare!
Why do you think I’m talking about you ninek? I actually can’t remember if I’ve specifically talked to you about healthcare.
I have seen people literally say “I don’t care how much debt they are in, they still shouldn’t have subsidized insurance and there’s no reason they can’t pay it off”. I’ve seen people say “It’s better to go to the ER than leech off the system for primary care.”. I’ve seen people say “why should I have to help pay for someone’s healthcare when they made bad and immoral choices”. I’ve seen people called lazy, stupid, leeches, welfare queens, ingrates, deadbeats etc etc etc. So forgive me when I don’t take it incredibly seriously when people complain about the poor people who work for PP and their wages and lack of health insurance.
And really, if the Tea Party doesn’t even believe in a minimum wage (I guess? It seems to change from person to person), I don’t see how low wages could be a complaint against any business. Don’t they have the right to pay their employees as they see fit and if the employees don’t like it, they can obtain other employment? I thought that was a guiding principle of the GOP!
And why do people think that the PP employees are unique? Those insurance premiums? Completely normal for people in this income bracket. They “offer” you crappy insurance that you can’t actually afford so they can meet whatever requirements they have to legally and not actually have to pay their part of the premium. That was actually something the ACA was supposed to help combat (whether it’s going to help or not is up in the air, but that was one of the issues). Those wages are actually decent compared to what people are stuck with (federal minimum is like $7.50 an hour, or something) in plenty of places. But no GOPer is going to worry about any of those people, because to get anyone to realize your plight apparently you gotta work for a company that kills babies for a living. THEN you deserve some sympathy. It’s just ridiculous. This isn’t unique, it happens in thousands of industries to millions of people every day, the same people who are pretty much constantly insulted on this blog weekly.
I have definitely seen examples of what Jack is talking about. I remember a thread about Hobby Lobby in which a commenter (I don’t remember who) stated that Hobby Lobby purposely scheduled all of their staff just a tiny bit under 40 hrs/week so that they would not need to offer them health insurance and how unfair this commenter thought that was. A regular commenter here told them they should have just looked into trying to get insurance from their parents instead of complaining about it.
Here, it was in this thread. The commenter actually said, “at least you had a job.” At least these Planned Parenthood employees have a job, right? :)
https://www.jillstanek.com/2013/01/pro-life-news-brief-1-3-13/#comments
“I remember a thread about Hobby Lobby in which a commenter (I don’t remember who) stated that Hobby Lobby purposely scheduled all of their staff just a tiny bit under 40 hrs/week so that they would not need to offer them health insurance and how unfair this commenter thought that was ”
That’s another thing that businesses do. And then you make too much money to require for financial assistance, but you don’t make enough to actually pay for insurance. It’s a trap that’s incredibly difficult to get out of.
In case it’s not clear, I actually do have sympathy for PP employees (the ones that don’t perform abortions, at least, I have trouble having sympathy for those that partake in the killing). I’m just laughing at people acting so concerned when this stuff goes on in multiple industries all the time, and usually everyone is fine with it!
First of all let me just say that I worked for Pp Key for a few years and this article is nothing but the truth. I am an educated woman and have a ton of medical experience. I took the job because I am all about trying to help my fellow woman, and I THOUGHT PP was about the same but quickly learned that I was sadly mistaken. They pay worst than any other job I have ever had and yes, being on food stamps is a regular thing for most of the employees. I am a single mother working my ass off to make ends meet and have been told a few times that a raise just simply was not in our budget. Well I guess that was a true statement since Kim Custer and Cecile Richards are sitting on a mountain of money and PP puts out a ridiculous amount of money for these “employee appreciation” retreats. I would be happy with a raise, some effing recognition and an effin gift card to use for things I need. I am not employed with them anymore and thank god for that! I know what the current employees feel like and I feel bad for them. The job market is tough in PA, and some stay because they have a family to feed and bills to pay. Their insurance premiums were completely unreasonable for the level of benefits they were even offering. I must say I am glad LOLA took a stand and gave everyone the courage to speak up. PP is now fully aware what their employees think of them and hopefully things will change, but believe me, i wont be holding my breath on that one! THANK YOU LOLA FOR BEING A BRAVE PERSON AND BRINGING ALL OF THIS TO LIGHT!
Planned Parenthood has plenty of money to go around considering THEY DONT PAY TO UPGRADE THEIR ABORTION CENTERS. Money for the upgrades comes from private millionaire donors who want to “help women”. Allentown received 6 figures to be compliant with Dept of Health regulations and be able to offer anesthesia in the future. This saves Keystone tons of money. They even got new chairs. But left the vagina juice chairs in Stroudsburg. I am glad other employees are speaking out. I don’t think ANY article or blog has brought to light as much abuses as Jill Staneks. Thank you Jill for giving us a space to reveal our daily abuse. We may not agree on everything but fraud, lies and misuse of taxpayer funds we can agree on. PP workers unite! No more wage slaves!
Calif. Insurance Commissioner: More Than 1M Californians Having Insurance Cancelled Due To ACA
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/11/12/calif-insurance-commissioner-more-than-1m-californians-having-insurance-cancelled-due-to-obamacare/
This is the best news Jimmy ‘I’ll never lie to you’ Carter has heard since his brother Billy announced he was joining the Libertarian Party and swearing off beer.
And the democRATs are as nervous as a Adrian Peterson on Father’s Day.
And the boRAT has played his 146th round of gold since pledging not to rest until….
http://obamagolfcounter.com/
I know the boRAT was thinking about each and every one of his fellow americans without a home, without a job, without health care, without a dead baby… each and every time he swung his golf club.
The good news is the people who make those golf balls emblazoned with the boRAT logo have job security for another two years, unless we get all get lucky and the democRATs start counting the costs and cutting their losses by giving the chief duffer the heave ho.
The roll out of obamascare has been like watching the Three Stooges, The Keystone Cops and a ‘chinese fire drill’ all rolled into one big ‘disaster flic’.
It’s like one of those youtube videos where the manly man utters those magic words, “Hey, watch this!” and then the predictable man made disaster begins to unfold like a cow giving birth in your living room. But unlike obamascare, the calf might develop into something good.
Just another ‘work place incident’.
I’m just laughing at people acting so concerned when this stuff goes on in multiple industries all the time, and usually everyone is fine with it!
Yes, it goes on in multiple places, but these places are not killing children. There is just a tad more at stake in regards to Planned Parenthood employees.
No PP employees = no PP clinics = no PP abortions.
Any PP employees reading this, you have my prayers and best wishes. Like I was told when I quit smoking, “If you could be talked into smoking that first cigarette, you can be talked into quitting.” You can make the escape from PP; you have a lot of great people out here cheering you on!
“ Yes, it goes on in multiple places, but these places are not killing children. There is just a tad more at stake in regards to Planned Parenthood employees.”
Where do you think a lot of their “clients” are coming from? Who’s more likely to get an abortion, a middle class woman with economic resources or a single mom who barely gets paid enough to make ends meet? It’s all connected, and only worrying about unfair business wages and lack of insurance when PP does them isn’t helping, besides being ridiculously hypocritical.
I would love it if every single PP employee quit and went to well-paying jobs, and PP ended up having to shut down because of it. But the demand for abortion would still exist, and poverty and lack of resources definitely contributes to it. That’s why the poor bashing makes me so angry (besides just being rude and cruel in general), it’s not a problem disconnected from abortion, child neglect, drug addiction, and all other crimes and problems that are connected to poverty.
Who’s more likely to get an abortion, a middle class woman with economic resources or a single mom who barely gets paid enough to make ends meet?
I’m not sure but for every single pregnant mom, there is a single dad who is equally responsible.
I would love it if every single PP employee quit and went to well-paying jobs, and PP ended up having to shut down because of it.
Some of us would rather work for peanuts than work for PP. Oh, some of us have worked for peanuts to keep food on the table.
But the demand for abortion would still exist, and poverty and lack of resources definitely contributes to it.
The demand for abortion exists because we have enabled our society to believe we deserve sex without consequences. Some of us do remember a time when it wasn’t like this. Being poor doesn’t make one incapable of keeping their pants on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7E88RUqyjts
“I’m not sure but for every single pregnant mom, there is a single dad who is equally responsible.”
Of course there is, and I talk about how men aren’t stepping up a lot. A lot of it seems self-perpetuating too, boys grow up without dads or with terrible dads and repeat that with their own kids. But the fact remains is that unmarried pregnant women and single moms are a huge market for abortion and are vulnerable to and targeted by the propaganda, regardless of the issues on the father side.
“Some of us would rather work for peanuts than work for PP. Oh, some of us have worked for peanuts to keep food on the table. ”
Yep, plenty of us do.
“The demand for abortion exists because we have enabled our society to believe we deserve sex without consequences. Some of us do remember a time when it wasn’t like this. Being poor doesn’t make one incapable of keeping their pants on.”
Yep, and I think the hook up culture is awful and say so often. But none of this changes the fact that poverty and abortion tend to go hand in hand. You can see it in the minority abortion rate in particular. Desperate people do desperate things.
and I talk about how men aren’t stepping up a lot.
And why aren’t they? Because we have enabled them not to.
“And why aren’t they? Because we have enabled them not to. ”
Well that and people tend to do what they know and are taught. I read an article about how children without fathers are more likely to become teen parents and the boys are more likely to not be involved in their own children’s lives. http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/19/us/cnnheroes-jones-baltimore/. Some groups like the one in that article are teaching boys who grew up without it how to provide and be responsible, along with how to nurture their children (teaching them that fatherhood isn’t sending a check to the mother of your kid). I applaud their efforts, some communities have really high absentee father rate and that needs to change.
I am not surprised by PPs low wages. Many nonprofits are like this and churches are some of the worst offenders. I get tired of seeing ministers driving luxury cars while their parishioners are living in poverty or pretty close to it. I went to church with a friend of mine a few times and at every service the minister asked for fifty dollars, and this was in a poor neighborhood. This is offensive to me. I believe in God and the power of prayer, but the money grubbing many churches engage in really turns me off.
FoodForThought, you need to watch “Norma Rae”… :)
And thanks for your kind words. There are indeed areas upon which we can agree – PP fraud and pt/employee abuse. I’m happy to help where I can. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Send me info.
Just got around to reading this thread and I’ve got to say that Len should have posted the entire response from the blog’s regular commenter instead of choosing a portion of it. And perhaps Jack should have read the entire response too. A person was disparaged for simply stating that college children typically are covered under their parents’ insurance plans and asked if that is the case there, had you posted the entire comment. The age of coverage was increased not too long ago for college kids incidentally.
This is a pro-life blog and as such it’s purpose is to expose abuses that occur in abortion clinics. PP employees are not college students but full-time staff employed in an industry that makes every attempt to profess itself as a caring health organization. Comparison to Hobby Lobby is, at the mission level at least, missing the mark. Every other subject matter is incidental. I’m fine with it.
Thanks, Thomas. I didn’t want to continue the discussion when Jill was getting such awesome comments from the PP employees. Readers, I was being facetious when I said we had a survey and 75% of people didn’t care about others’ mounting debts. Jill had no such survey, and I was trying to make a point. I think the commenters here are a pretty generous bunch, not just in terms of caring about babies and mothers, but even each other. Observe, if you care to scroll around, the supportive comments when a “regular” has a personal misfortune.
I do care.
Carla has my contact information and I totally give her permission to ask about openings where I work. We are an educational institution that provides care for patients under licensed supervision. We do have job openings from time to time and I can give out the HR person’s contact info if I am emailed.
I have a dream for PP, though I’m sure the executives would laugh me to scorn: Stop offering abortions both chemical and surgical. Instead, offer birth control with counseling that if it doesn’t prevent conception, the resulting child is alive and worthy of prenatal care. Imagine if you can, a nationwide set of clinics offering low cost pre-natal care to women who need it.
It’s 2013 and time to stop shaming girls and women for getting pregnant. You’re not “stupid” because your birth control failed. You can carry your child to term and you can plan for his or her future. It’s not easy, but people do care. I care. Jack cares. Thomas cares. Jill cares. Carla cares. And lots of us ‘crazy pro-lifers’ were pro-choice once upon a time. We understand, because we’ve been there.