Interactive Investor

ii comments on the disability pay gap

25th April 2022 11:51

by Myron Jobson from interactive investor

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Our senior personal finance analyst comments on the ONS statistics.

Disability pay gap 600
  • The disability pay gap, the gap between median pay for disabled employees and non-disabled employees, was 13.8% in 2021 and 14.1% in 2019 prior to the coronavirus pandemic, according to new statistics by the Office for National Statistic (ONS).
  • This gap has widened slightly since 2014 when disabled employees earnt 11.7% less than non-disabled employees.
  • Those with severe or specific learning difficulties (29.7% less), epilepsy (25.4% less), or mental illness or other nervous disorders (22.1%), also had a large pay gap to non-disabled employees with no long-lasting health conditions.

Commenting, Myron Jobson, Senior Personal Finance Analyst, interactive investor, says: “The gender and ethnicity pay inequalities are rightly never too far away from the spotlight, but the chasm between the average earnings of people with disabilities and those without doesn’t get as much attention. These are important figures.

“The disability pay gap has grown by over two percentage points since 2014 to 13.8% in 2021, widening concern about inequality. There is still so much we don’t know about mental health, and it has also become increasingly important for employers to accommodate for disabilities that can't be seen. The full impact of the pandemic on mental health is yet to be seen, and now we also have a cost-of-living crisis.

“Today’s data is a huge wake-up call that needs to be taken seriously.”

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