IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v56y2018i4p798-834.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Do Workers with Disabilities Earn Less? Occupational Job Requirements and Disability Discrimination

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas Kruse
  • Lisa Schur
  • Sean Rogers
  • Mason Ameri

Abstract

We analyse competing explanations for the lower pay of employees with disabilities, using 2008–2014 data from the American Community Survey matched to O*Net data on occupational job requirements. The results indicate that only part of the disability pay gap is due to productivity‐related job requirements. The remaining pay gap — experienced by employees whose impairments should not limit their productivity — reflects potential discrimination. The discrimination‐related pay gaps appear to be smallest and possibly non‐existent for women and men with hearing impairments, and largest for those with cognitive and mobility impairments. Overall the results indicate that discrimination is likely to remain an influence on the pay of many workers with disabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas Kruse & Lisa Schur & Sean Rogers & Mason Ameri, 2018. "Why Do Workers with Disabilities Earn Less? Occupational Job Requirements and Disability Discrimination," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 798-834, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:56:y:2018:i:4:p:798-834
    DOI: 10.1111/bjir.12257
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12257
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/bjir.12257?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hamermesh, Daniel S & Biddle, Jeff E, 1994. "Beauty and the Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1174-1194, December.
    2. Nan L. Maxwell, 2008. "Wage Differentials, Skills, and Institutions in Low-Skill Jobs," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(3), pages 394-409, April.
    3. Christine Jolls & J.J. Prescott, 2004. "Disaggregating Employment Protection: The Case of Disability Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 10740, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Gary Solon & Steven J. Haider & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "What Are We Weighting For?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 301-316.
    5. Stijn Baert, 2016. "Wage subsidies and hiring chances for the disabled: some causal evidence," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 17(1), pages 71-86, January.
    6. Morley Gunderson & Douglas Hyatt, 1996. "Do Injured Workers Pay for Reasonable Accommodation?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 50(1), pages 92-104, October.
    7. Michele Campolieti & Harry Krashinsky, 2006. "Disabled Workers and Wage Losses: Some Evidence from Workers with Occupational Injuries," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(1), pages 120-138, October.
    8. Brent Kreider, 1999. "Latent Work Disability and Reporting Bias," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(4), pages 734-769.
    9. Daron Acemoglu & Joshua D. Angrist, 2001. "Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(5), pages 915-957, October.
    10. Thomas DeLeire, 2001. "Changes in Wage Discrimination against People with Disabilities: 1984-93," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(1), pages 144-158.
    11. Melanie Jones & Kostas Mavromaras & Peter Sloane & Zhang Wei, 2014. "Disability, job mismatch, earnings and job satisfaction in Australia," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 38(5), pages 1221-1246.
    12. Melanie K. Jones & Peter J. Sloane, 2010. "Disability and Skill Mismatch," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(s1), pages 101-114, September.
    13. Marjorie L. Baldwin & Chung Choe, 2014. "Wage Discrimination Against Workers with Sensory Disabilities," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 101-124, January.
    14. Kreider, Brent & Pepper, John V., 2007. "Disability and Employment: Reevaluating the Evidence in Light of Reporting Errors," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 102, pages 432-441, June.
    15. Mason Ameri & Lisa Schur & Meera Adya & F. Scott Bentley & Patrick McKay & Douglas Kruse, 2018. "The Disability Employment Puzzle: A Field Experiment on Employer Hiring Behavior," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(2), pages 329-364, March.
    16. Melanie K. Jones, 2016. "Disability and Perceptions of Work and Management," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(1), pages 83-113, March.
    17. Jones, Melanie K., 2006. "Is there employment discrimination against the disabled?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 32-37, July.
    18. Kidd, Michael P. & Sloane, Peter J. & Ferko, Ivan, 2000. "Disability and the labour market: an analysis of British males," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 961-981, November.
    19. Jones, Melanie K. & Latreille, Paul L., 2010. "Disability and earnings: Are employer characteristics important?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 106(3), pages 191-194, March.
    20. Hugo Benitez-Silva & Moshe Buchinsky & Hiu Man Chan & Sofia Cheidvasser & John Rust, 2000. "How Large is the Bias in Self-Reported Disability?," Working Papers 2000-01, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    21. Melanie K. Jones, 2009. "The Employment Effect of the Disability Discrimination Act: Evidence from the Health Survey for England," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(2), pages 349-369, June.
    22. Ravaud, Jean-François & Madiot, Béatrice & Ville, Isabelle, 1992. "Discrimination towards disabled people seeking employment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 951-958, October.
    23. Richard Burkhauser & Mary C. Daly, 2011. "The Declining Work and Welfare of People with Disabilities," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 7631, September.
    24. Melanie K. Jones & Paul L. Latreille & Peter J. Sloane, 2006. "Disability, gender, and the British labour market," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 407-449, July.
    25. Alan Krueger & Douglas Kruse, 1995. "Labor Market Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries in the Dawn of the Computer Age," NBER Working Papers 5302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Patrick Button, 2018. "Expanding Employment Discrimination Protections for Individuals with Disabilities: Evidence from California," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(2), pages 365-393, March.
    27. Kevin Hollenbeck & Jean Kimmel, 2008. "Differences in the Returns to Education for Males by Disability Status and Age of Disability Onset," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 74(3), pages 707-724, January.
    28. Hugo Benítez-Silva & Moshe Buchinsky & Hiu Man Chan & Sofia Cheidvasser & John Rust, 2004. "How large is the bias in self-reported disability?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(6), pages 649-670.
    29. Chung Choe & Marjorie L. Baldwin, 2017. "Duration of disability, job mismatch and employment outcomes," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(10), pages 1001-1015, February.
    30. Marjorie L. Baldwin & Chung Choe, 2014. "Re-examining the models used to estimate disability-related wage discrimination," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(12), pages 1393-1408, April.
    31. Barry T. Hirsch & Edward J. Schumacher, 2012. "Underpaid or Overpaid? Wage Analysis for Nurses Using Job and Worker Attributes," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 78(4), pages 1096-1119, April.
    32. Umut Oguzoglu, 2012. "Is there a better measure of self-assessed disability?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(14), pages 1335-1338, September.
    33. repec:fth:prinin:349 is not listed on IDEAS
    34. Steven Stern, 1989. "Measuring the Effect of Disability on Labor Force Participation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 24(3), pages 361-395.
    35. Melanie K. Jones, 2008. "Disability and the labour market: a review of the empirical evidence," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(5), pages 405-424, September.
    36. Lixin Cai, 2009. "Is self-reported disability status endogenous to labour force status?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(5), pages 459-464.
    37. repec:aei:rpbook:24945 is not listed on IDEAS
    38. Alan Krueger & Douglas Kruse, 1995. "Labor Market Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries in the Dawn of the Computer Age," Working Papers 728, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Button, Patrick & Walker, Brigham, 2020. "Employment discrimination against Indigenous Peoples in the United States: Evidence from a field experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Wong, Sandy & McLafferty, Sara L. & Planey, Arrianna M. & Preston, Valerie A., 2020. "Disability, wages, and commuting in New York," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    3. Mark L. Bryan & Andrew M. Bryce & Jennifer Roberts, 2022. "Dysfunctional presenteeism: Effects of physical and mental health on work performance," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 90(4), pages 409-438, July.
    4. Maryam Dilmaghani, 2022. "The link between smoking, drinking and wages: Health, workplace social capital or discrimination?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 160-183, March.
    5. Kevin F. Hallock & Xin Jin & Michael Waldman, 2022. "The total compensation gap, wage gap and benefit gap between workers with and without a disability," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(1), pages 3-31, March.
    6. Druckman, James N. & Levy, Jeremy & Sands, Natalie, 2021. "Bias in education disability accommodations," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    7. Ballo, Jannike Gottschalk, 2023. "Is the disability wage gap a gendered inequality? Evidence from a 13-year full population study from Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    8. Lauren A. Rivera & András Tilcsik, 2023. "Not in My Schoolyard: Disability Discrimination in Educational Access," American Sociological Review, , vol. 88(2), pages 284-321, April.
    9. Katie M. Jajtner & Sophie Mitra & Christine Fountain & Austin Nichols, 2020. "Rising Income Inequality Through a Disability Lens: Trends in the United States 1981–2018," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 81-114, August.
    10. Ralph, Kelcie & Morris, Eric A. & Kwon, Jaekyeong, 2022. "Disability, access to out-of-home activities, and subjective well-being," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 209-227.
    11. Ameri, Mason & Ali, Mohammad & Schur, Lisa & Kruse, Douglas L., 2019. "Disability and the Unionized Workplace," IZA Discussion Papers 12258, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kevin F. Hallock & Xin Jin & Michael Waldman, 2022. "The total compensation gap, wage gap and benefit gap between workers with and without a disability," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(1), pages 3-31, March.
    2. Mason Ameri & Lisa Schur & Meera Adya & F. Scott Bentley & Patrick McKay & Douglas Kruse, 2018. "The Disability Employment Puzzle: A Field Experiment on Employer Hiring Behavior," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(2), pages 329-364, March.
    3. Simonetta Longhi & Cheti Nicoletti & Lucinda Platt, 2012. "Interpreting Wage Gaps of Disabled Men: The Roles of Productivity and of Discrimination," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 78(3), pages 931-953, January.
    4. Haile, Getinet Astatike, 2016. "Workplace Disability: Whose Wellbeing Does It Affect?," IZA Discussion Papers 10102, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Bruce Meyer & Wallace K. C. Mok, 2016. "Disability, Earnings, Income and Consumption," NBER Chapters, in: Social Insurance Programs (Trans-Atlantic Public Economics Seminar, TAPES), National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Melanie Jones, 2009. "Disability, employment and earnings: an examination of heterogeneity," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(8), pages 1001-1017.
    7. Hamish Low & Luigi Pistaferri, 2010. "Disability Risk, Disability Insurance and Life Cycle Behavior," NBER Working Papers 15962, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Melanie Jones, 2016. "Disability and labor market outcomes," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 253-253, April.
    9. Demianova, Anna & Lukiyanova, Anna, 2016. "The impact of disability status on labor supply in Russia," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 44, pages 50-74.
    10. Jones, Melanie K., 2006. "Is there employment discrimination against the disabled?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 32-37, July.
    11. Chung Choe, 2013. "Determinants of Labor Market Outcomes of Disabled Men Before and After the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 29, pages 211-233.
    12. Umut Oguzoglu, 2010. "Dynamics of work limitation and work in Australia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(6), pages 656-669, June.
    13. Doreen Wing Han Au & Thomas F. Crossley & Martin Schellhorn, 2005. "The effect of health changes and long‐term health on the work activity of older Canadians," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(10), pages 999-1018, October.
    14. Brent Kreider & John Pepper, 2008. "Inferring disability status from corrupt data," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 329-349.
    15. Sarah Brown & Jennifer Roberts & Karl Taylor, 2010. "Reservation wages, labour market participation and health," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 173(3), pages 501-529, July.
    16. Melanie Jones & Paul Latreille, 2011. "Disability and self-employment: evidence for the UK," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(27), pages 4161-4178.
    17. Melanie K. Jones & Peter J. Sloane, 2010. "Disability and Skill Mismatch," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(s1), pages 101-114, September.
    18. Meyer, Bruce D. & Mok, Wallace K.C., 2019. "Disability, earnings, income and consumption," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 51-69.
    19. Bruce D. Meyer & Wallace K. C. Mok, 2017. "Disability, Taxes, Transfers, and the Economic Well-Being of Women," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 32, pages 211-253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Button, Patrick & Khan, Mashfiqur R. & Penn, Mary, 2022. "Do stronger employment discrimination protections decrease reliance on Social Security Disability Insurance? Evidence from the U.S. Social Security reforms," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:56:y:2018:i:4:p:798-834. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.