Washington — As part of Disability Pride month, CEPR’s Disability and Economic Justice Chartbook offers visual insights into the disabled community in the US economy.
CEPR researchers Hayley Brown, Julie Cai, and Shawn Fremstad illustrate:
- Over one-in-four adults in the US have disabilities.
- In 2020, disabled workers were paid $0.74 for every nondisabled workers’ dollar.
- Working-age disabled adults are nearly three times more likely than their nondisabled peers to not be in the labor force (neither employed nor actively looking for work).
- Disabled adults are twice as likely as nondisabled adults to have income below the poverty line.
- Disabled workers are less likely to have access to paid sick leave than nondisabled.
- Half of women in prison are disabled compared to just under four-in-ten men in prison.
- About four-in-ten disabled adults experience transportation insecurity, meaning they are unable to regularly move from place to place in a safe or timely manner due to the absence of needed resources for transportation.
“To achieve economic justice for all, we must address structural barriers to economic security and inclusion for people with disabilities,” said co-author Brown.
