Vol. 8, No. 1 Winter 2000	Previous Issues Subscribe to AT Messenger Download PDF Viewer
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Economic Life and Disability

Reprinted from Disability Agenda, Volume 2, No. 3 (Winter 1999) with permission from the National Organization on Disability.

The National Organization on Disability, in partnership with Louis Harris & Associates, last Fall conducted the third nationwide survey of the lives and experiences of people with disabilities. As in previous years, the survey focused heavily on the economic well-being of individuals with disabilities. The findings were as sobering last year as they were in 1994 and 1986. Specifically:

• People with disabilities in 1998 were some two and one-half times less likely than those without disabilities to be employed, with the 'employment gap' now standing at 50 percentage points-a slight increase since the level of 1986.
• One-third (34%) of adults with disabilities live in a household with a poverty-level annual income of less than $15,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars, compared to about 12% of non-disabled Americans--a 22 point gap. This gap is virtually identical to the gaps reported in 1994 and 1986.

In order to better understand these persistent gaps, Disability Agenda [a publication of the National Organization on Disability] reviewed the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

Employment and Disability

As previous Harris surveys have suggested, employment rates vary greatly according to the severity and type of disability. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the employment rates for people between ages 21 and 64 are:

82% for all people (disabled and non-disabled)

77% for those with a non-severe disability

52% for those with any disability

26% for those with a severe disability

Employment rates differ as well according to the type of disability. For instance, people with hearing disabilities are about half as likely to be employed as are those with visual or mental disabilities, and some two to three times as likely to be employed as are people with physical disabilities.

Disability and Age

The gaps in employment also vary markedly according to age. For instance, among people aged 16 to 24, people with disabilities are only 57% as likely their non-disabled counterparts to be in the labor force (that is, either working or looking for work) an only 41% as likely to be employed full-time.

Between ages 25 and 34, these percentages are even lower: people with disabilities are only 44% as likely as their non-disabled counterparts to be in the labor force, and only 29% as likely to be employed full-time.

These figures continue to decline with age to the point that, between ages 55 and 64, people with disabilities are only 26% as likely as their non-disabled counterparts to be in the labor force, and only 17% as likely to be employed full-time, thus creating an even greater income gap among older people with and without disabilities.

The Effect of Education

Educational attainment has a profound influence on employment levels. For instance, for individuals between ages 16 through 64, people with disabilities with fewer than 12 years of education are only 20% as likely to hold a full-time job as are people without disabilities with the same educational levels. In contrast, for individuals with 16 or more years of education, people with disabilities are more than twice as likely-41%-as people without disabilities to have a full-time job.

A similar picture emerges for earnings. Among people with disabilities aged 16 to 64 who are employed full-time, the average annual earnings for those with fewer than 12 years of schooling are just $19,200, compared to $45,500 for individuals with 16 or more years of schooling.

Interestingly, it is simply the fact of full-time employment that has the most impact on the earnings gaps between people with and without disabilities. People with disabilities who are either working (whether full-time or not) or looking for work earn only 60% to 70% of what demographically similar non-disabled people earn. However, people with disabilities who have a full-time job earn approximately 80%-thus approaching parity-of what demographically similar non-disabled people do.

Interpreting the Findings

These findings do have a number of important implications for the future.

First, disability's effects on employment and earnings are not uniform. They vary greatly according to age and the severity and type of disability-and so any solutions cannot be uniform either.

Second, greater educational attainment is perhaps the most powerful route to higher employment and earnings levels for people with disabilities. All else being equal, anything that makes it possible for young people with disabilities to obtain more education will enable them, as a group, to more easily find a job and to earn higher income levels, thereby helping to close the gaps in employment and earnings throughout their working lives.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, full-time employment emerges as the greatest single factor in closing the income gaps between people with and without disabilities. On average, individuals with disabilities who have a full-time job earn nearly as much as do demographically similar individuals without disabilities.

Closing the Gaps

The chain of cause and effect for economic well-being among people with disabilities is thus much the same as for the rest of the population.

Education increases the probability of employment. Employment increases earnings. And education, employment, and adequate earnings, in turn, are the first step--both the enabler and the fundamental economic prerequisite--for full participation by people with disabilities in American life.

Ensuring that young people with disabilities have access to the best education possible, and doing all that we can to make sure that people with disabilities can find full-time work, therefore must be the heart of America's disability agenda-particularly as it pertains to economic well-being--as the new century begins.