By Sarah Kim, Contributor – Forbes.com – October 24, 2019
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and it’s about time to discuss the staggering unemployment and sub-minimum pay rates among the disability community.
According to data obtained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment-population ratio for people with disabilities was 19.1% in 2018, compared to 65.9% for people without disabilities. Although the lower rate among people with disabilities reflects, in part, the age profile of the population — older people are less likely to be employed — across all age groups, people with disabilities were much less likely to be employed than their non-disabled peers.
Out of the small population of people with disabilities who are hired, many receive sub-minimum wages. In recent years, there have been reports of an estimated 420,000 individuals with disabilities who have been paid an average of just $2.15 per hour.