Unpacking the disability pay gap

ADR UK Research Fellow Dr Daniel Derbyshire discusses his research project on the disability pay gap, and why this topic is on the political agenda.

I began my research on disability employment around six years ago. In that time, I’ve learned a lot about the kinds of barriers and discrimination disabled people face in accessing the labour market on equal terms to non-disabled people. These include negative attitudes and misperceptions about disabled people, as well as inflexibility in employer working practices.

These factors (among others) contribute towards a persistent disability employment gap and disability pay gap.

The disability employment gap refers to the difference in employment rates between non-disabled people and disabled people. This gap is typically as high as a 25% to 30% difference in employment rates and shows how disabled people can be excluded from the workplace entirely.

When disabled people do enter the workplace, they are then faced with the double discrimination of a disability pay gap. The disability pay gap is especially perilous for disabled people since disabled people typically face higher costs of living compared to non-disabled people.

A new opportunity to explore these issues

Thanks to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) linked to Census 2011 dataset, researchers now have a novel opportunity to explore earnings patterns across a broad spectrum of personal characteristics, including disability status.

When I first learned about the potential of the dataset, I realised it could provide the insights needed to dig deeper into the disability pay gap – and so this project was born.

Building on my previous research on disability employment, I want to understand how and why the disability pay gap varies around England, based on local factors such as local employment rates and wage levels.

Pay gap reporting

Gender pay gap reporting has been mandatory for large (250+ employees) firms since the introduction of The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. Since then, there have been calls for mandatory disability pay gap reporting from organisations such as the Trades Union Congress and Disability Rights UK. The idea is that this would raise awareness and allow the public to hold employers to account around the fair employment of disabled people.

Last year, disability pay gap reporting was placed firmly on the policy agenda when the government announced the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. The bill will introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting and begin a process of tackling ethnicity- and disability-based pay discrimination.

Driving change through research

My project aims to contribute to the conversation by deepening our understanding of the factors that drive the disability pay gap across England.

By exploring how local employment rates, wage levels, and other regional differences influence these pay gaps, I hope to provide policymakers with the evidence needed to address them and push for greater equality in the workplace.

Find out more about Daniel’s project.