Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

PURPOSE: Although the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) set forth the national commitment to eliminating discrimination against all persons with disabilities and to making necessary accommodations at the work place, employment and quality of work among the persons with disabilities are still critical issues. Even though the issues on work among persons with disabilities have been focused by many previous studies, still less is known about the employment and earnings gap by types of persons with disabilities. Because persons with disabilities are not a homogeneous population, examination of employment and earnings gap by types of disability is an important step to understand the issues of work status among the persons with disabilities more deeply and accurately.

METHOD: Using data from wave 9 of the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation core and topical modules, this study focused on the differences of employment rate and monthly earnings by types of the persons with disabilities. persons with disability (N=43.021)were defined by persons with any ADL or IADL problems, and 30 major sources of causing disability (such as arthritis, speech disorder, stroke, cancer) were used to develop categorization of four mutually exclusive types of disability (mental, physical, medical, and other). To find employment and earnings gap among four types of persons with disabilities, this study conducted tobit regression for monthly earnings, and logistic regression for employment with controlling for demographics (such as age, gender, education) and years of being disabled. Followed series of separated regression models were performed to find the differences of the influencing variables on employment and earnings by types of persons with disability.

FINDIGNS: Descriptive analysis found that employment rate and monthly wages were the highest for persons with physical disabilities (employment: 69%, wages: $2,569) and the lowest for persons with mental disabilities (employment: 12%, wages: $1,348). By assigning persons without disabilities as a reference, regression models found that persons with physical disabilities were most likely to be employed (OR=0.37, p<.001) and had largest earnings (8% less of non-disabled, p<.001); and persons with mental disabilities were least likely to be employed (OR=0.10, p<.001) and smallest amount of earnings (51% less, p<.001). Series of followed regressions found that age, education and gender were significant determinants of employment and monthly earnings for all types of disability (p<.01) except for those with mental disabilities. Length of being disabled was found to be a significant determinant of work only for persons with physical disabilities (p<.05).

IMPLICATIONS: This study found that there was enormous disparity in employment rate and monthly earnings by types of disabilities, and the efforts to eliminate work discrimination against all persons with disabilities did not have successful outcomes. This study suggested the needs of more effective intervention strategy for persons with disabilities by consideration of different characteristics among each type of disabilities, especially for persons with mental disabilities. Further implications will be presented.