Labour Inclusion of People with Disabilities: What Role Do the Social and Solidarity Economy Entities Play?

Economic theory presupposes that the Entities of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) should exhibit a greater sensitivity in the labour insertion of groups in danger of social exclusion than should the Capitalist Companies (CC). Therefore, it is expected that the SSE will employ a greater number of people with socio-labour characteristics among its workers against whom the ordinary labour market discriminates negatively. In this context, the objective of this research is focused on the analysis of socio-labour characteristics, salary differences and the degree of inequality in the distribution of salary income of the group of workers with disabilities in the SSE compared to CCs in Spain during the Great Recession (2007–2013) and the beginning of the current economic recovery (2013–2016). Using the data from the Continuous Sample of Working Histories (MCVL, in Spanish), our results show a greater sensitivity from the SSE compared to the CC in labour inclusion of workers with disabilities as well as for most socio-labour characteristics against which the ordinary labour market discriminates negatively. A second conclusion of the results is that the SSE provides a more equitable distribution of salary income for workers with disabilities than the CC, although the wages are comparatively lower.