The ‘disability pay gap’ means disabled people effectively stopped getting paid yesterday and will work for free for the last 47 days of 2023.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) calculated that non-disabled workers earn around a sixth (14.6%) more than disabled workers. The analysis found that the pay gap for disabled workers across the board is £1.90 an hour, or £66.50 per week.
That makes for a pay difference of £3,460 a year for someone working a 35-hour week – and means that disabled people effectively work for free for the last 47 days of the year, which means from today onwards.
The union has slammed ‘zero progress’ on the disability pay gap in the past decade. Its analysis shows the pay gap between non-disabled and disabled workers is now higher than it was 10 years ago. The TUC found disabled women face an even bigger pay penalty of 30%, which equates to £3.73 an hour.
‘Zero progress’ on disability pay gap
The pay gap has fallen since last year, when the overall pay gap was £2.05 (17.2%) an hour. But the TUC worked out that the disability pay gap is now higher than it was a decade ago (13.2% in 2013/14) when the first comparable pay data was recorded.
TUC analysis found that disabled women face the biggest pay gap. Non-disabled men are paid on average 30% (£3.73 an hour, £130.55 a week, or £6,780 a year) more than disabled women.
The research also shows that the disability pay gap persists for workers for most of their careers. At age 25, the pay gap is £1.73 an hour hitting a high of £3.18 an hour, or £111.30 a week, for disabled workers aged 40 to 44.
Not only are disabled workers paid less than non-disabled workers, they are also more likely to be excluded from the job market. Disabled workers are twice as likely as non-disabled workers to be unemployed (6.7% compared to 3.3%).
The TUC analysis showed disabled BME workers face a much tougher labour market – one in 10 (10.4%) BME disabled workers are unemployed compared to nearly one in 40 (2.6%) white non-disabled workers.
Zero-hours contracts
The analysis also revealed that disabled workers are more likely than non-disabled workers to be on zero-hours contracts (4.5% to 3.4%). Disabled BME women are nearly three times as likely as non-disabled white men (6% to 2.2%) to be on these insecure contracts.
The TUC says zero-hours contracts hand the employer total control over workers’ hours and earning power, meaning workers never know how much they will earn each week, and their income is “subject to the whims of managers”.
The union body argues that this makes it hard for workers to plan their lives, look after their children and get to medical appointments.
It also makes it harder for workers to challenge unacceptable behaviour by bosses because of concerns about whether they will be penalised by not being allocated hours in future.
New Deal for Working People
The TUC says Labour’s New Deal for Working People would be a “game changer” for disabled workers, introducing mandatory disability pay gap reporting and a day one right to flexible work.
Labour has pledged to deliver new rights for working people in an employment bill in its first 100 days. Labour’s new deal would introduce disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting, strengthen flexible working rights and ban zero-hours contracts. The party would also give all workers day one rights on the job, scrapping qualifying times for basic rights, such as unfair dismissal, sick pay, and parental leave.
Paul Nowak, TUC general secretary, said: “We all deserve to be paid fairly for the work we do. But disabled people continue to be valued less in our jobs market.
“It’s shameful there has been zero progress on the disability pay gap in the last decade. Being disabled shouldn’t mean you are given a lower wage – or left out of the jobs market altogether.
“Too many disabled people are held back at work, not getting the reasonable adjustments they need to do their jobs. And we need to strengthen the benefits system for those who are unable to work or are out of work, so they are not left in poverty.
“It’s time for a step change. Labour’s New Deal for Working People would be an absolute game changer for disabled workers. It would introduce mandatory disability pay gap reporting to shine a light on inequality at work. Without this legislation, millions of disabled workers will be consigned to many more years of lower pay and in-work poverty.”
