Labor Market Discrimination against Men with Disabilities

Abstract

The 1984 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation is used to estimate the extent of labor market discrimination against men with disabilities. Men with disabilities are classified into a group with impairments that are subject to prejudice (handicapped) and a group with impairments that are less subject to prejudice (disabled). Very large differences in employment rates and hourly wages are found between handicapped and nondisabled men. The employment rates and hourly wages of disabled men are slightly lower than those of nondisabled men but substantially higher than those of handicapped men. Using data from the 1972 Social Security Survey of the Disabled as a benchmark, we find that wage differentials between nondisabled and both disabled and handicapped men increased between 1972 and 1984. The employment rate for handicapped men also increased but the 1984 rate was still substantially lower than the rates for nondisabled or disabled men.