The Trades Union Congress in the UK has produced analysis that indicates that the disability pay gap is now higher than it was 10 years ago!  The figures indicate that non-disabled workers earn around a sixth more (14.6%) compared to disabled worker.  Taking it to another level of detail – the pay difference is £3,460 per year, meaning that disabled workers, working an average of 35 hours per week, work for free for the last 47 days of the year!

Not only are disabled workers paid less than non disabled workers, but they are also more excluded from the job market.  The unemployment rate for disabled workers is 6.7% compared to 3.3% for non-disabled workers.

So, what’s driving these disappointing results and what more can we be doing to improve the job opportunities and to reduce the pay gap for disabled workers?

• Whilst the work of campaign organisations like The Valuable 500 have made a difference in elevating the focus around global disability inclusion, it’s clear that it’s still not enough of a priority for CEOs and their leaders
• The impact of COVID meant that forced working from home arrangements, opened up more opportunities for disabled workers.  However, it’s important that businesses remain committed to increasing the employment of disabled workers and the offer of flexible working arrangements, is sure to support that
• At AMS we created our D&I Alliance as a way of supporting us and our clients on our collective DEI challenges.  We are proud to be partnering with Evenbreak, offering an accessible job board for disabled candidates.  We also partner with Auticon, an IT consulting company that helps their clients to become a destination for neurodivergent talent.  
• We collect employee  disability data  (where we are able to) providing insight on disability representation across our business.  As a next step, we will be producing our disability pay gap for the first time next year
• Our award winning disability and neurodiversity employee resource groups have played a key role in educating our business on the the benefits and opportunities in hiring more disabled and neurodivergent talent.  We have more work to do on this, but we are on the right track

In summary, this analysis from the TUC doesn’t make for good reading and it’s clear that we all have a role to play to better support disabled workers.  I’d love to hear what you think about the TUC analysis and what you think organisations can be doing to increase it’s focus on disability inclusion. 

Disabled people effectively work for free for the last 47 days of the year and stop getting paid today (14 November), according to new analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/disabled-people-will-work-the-rest-of-the-year-for-free