The Economics of Disability: Has the Americans with Disabilities Act Failed Disabled Workers?
What do you want to be when you grow up? This is the question that one is exposed to the most when growing up in a capitalist society such as the United States. It’s a question meant to get an individual thinking about future prospects, such as potential career paths and income levels, but more than that it highlights the underlying expectations within a capitalist society for most, if not all, of its members to contribute some form of labor. It’s an aspect of life that is undeniably ingrained in American society. People as young as 16 can legally work in the United States and some workers work well past the age of 65 (the age that qualifies most for retirement). While the desire to work can greatly be attributed to establishing a sense of financial independence, studies have shown that in capitalist societies an individual’s occupational status contributes to their sense of self. However, a person’s willingness to work isn’t always met with open arms, especially if, as is the case for workers with disabilities, they are presumed to contribute less in terms of production.
It is no secret that, in spite of attempts to lessen the effects of discrimination in employment practices such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, or national origin, several minority groups still experience high unemployment rates and excruciating working conditions. Although the relationships between employment status and average income have been studied extensively for groups such as people of color and women, the group of people mentioned last in discussions about employment are those with disabilities. Perhaps the lack of intersectionality amongst people with disabilities and other minority groups can be explained by the later passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 by the Bush administration, 26 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and requires that employers, “provide qualified individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from the full range of employment-related opportunities available to others.” However, it is important to note that the ADA does not state how to address individual or labor market complexities that could affect employment nor how to change attitudes in the workplace towards disabilities. So while the extent of the act’s effectiveness is under question, the economic hardships faced by individuals with disabilities aren’t.
In 2020, the United States had 20 million disabled people of working age; however, out of these only 7.6 million (around 38%) were employed. Unfortunately, this trend does not seem to have gotten better over time. One study shows that employment rates for people experiencing a work-limiting disability decreased from 50% to 22% from 1988 to 2014 while their income only increased by $1,200. This is alarming when taking into consideration that people with disabilities earned $27,000 compared to the $38,000 earned by their non-disabled counterparts in 1988, two years before the passage of the ADA, and $28,000 compared to the $42,000 earned by non-disabled workers in 2014. Aside from this, employers today can still pay workers with disabilities subminimum wages, usually at rates per piece rather than per hour, by applying for permits under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Even though the issue has recently received attention in congress through the Raise the Wage Act, subminimum wage certificates would still remain valid up to five years after its passage starting at $5 in the first year of enactment. So although change for disabled workers seems plausible, the value of their labor continues to be undermined.
When it comes to the subject of whether the ADA has managed to accomplish its purpose, the data seem to suggest that it has had almost no positive impacts on workers with disabilities. Some even suggest that the ADA has inadvertently hurt the probabilities of disabled workers obtaining employment by making employers weary of the costs behind reasonable accommodations. Nonetheless, the ADA isn’t the sole determinant of how disability is perceived in a society centered around capitalist principles. As important as economic factors can be, the human factors surrounding this issue can’t be ignored. As long as the stigmatization of disabilities continues in American society, it will be long before we witness real, beneficial change for people with disabilities.
Written by: Yuritzy Ramos
Edited by: Andrew McArthur
Sources:
1. https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/3277/3122
2. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/civil-rights-center/statutes/civil-rights-act-of-1964
3. https://www.ada.gov/ada_intro.htm
4. https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/4927/4024
5. https://www.representwomen.org/addressing_ableism_why_we_need_more_disabled_representatives
6. http://ftp.iza.org/dp12258.pdf
7. http://ftp.iza.org/dp12258.pdf
8. https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/3/16/21178197/people-with-disabilities-minimum-wage
9. https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2021-01-26%20Raise%20the%20Wage%20Act%20Section%20by%20Section.pdf
10. https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/4927/4024
