Raise the Bar for People with Disabilities through Pay Equity
January 2021
Since the establishment of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, federal and state policies and practices have led to increased employment for people with disabilities. In the past decade, this work has shifted to a greater focus on youth transitioning to work, increasing labor force participation, and competitive integrated employment.
Employment is necessary but insufficient to ensure success for people with disabilities. Our recent research brief points to the pay disparities between workers with and without disabilities, even when they have the same educational level. In particular, the paper found that employees with disabilities are less likely to achieve management positions.
To address this issue, IEL hosted a virtual panel discussion with state and local leaders in disability policy to address the challenge of pay inequity for people with disabilities. Following are strategies and policies at the city and state levels from Boston to Houston to Alaska that are improving employment and pay equity outcomes for youth and adults with disabilities. Consider these actions for your local and state offices to Raise the Bar in support of talented workers with disabilities in our economy.
Strategy 1: Increase inclusive recruitment, hiring, and promotion
The Massachusetts Model Employer Program set a goal to make the state executive office a model employer. Objectives included targeted outreach to people with disabilities, HR strategies like collecting data and encouraging self-identification, internships, and providing pathways for advancement in state offices.
Alaska leads a cross-state agency collaborative called the Business Employment Services team that includes state departments of health and human services, labor, and vocational rehabilitation to provide resources to employers. The team hosts a twice annual job fair, supports people with disabilities and veterans, conducts targeted outreach to federal contractors, and works with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and the state labor agency to reach the 7% hiring goal of employees with disabilities. These state government hiring programs have helped put more people with disabilities into leadership positions. Alaska also works closely with the national Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), local chambers of commerce, and the state chamber to get information out to the employer community.
Houston has established the People with Disabilities Business Enterprise Certification through the city’s Office of Business Opportunity, which ensures that contracts awarded by the city of Houston meet Small Business set aside targets that include disability-owned small businesses. Over the past 3 fiscal years, 14 disability owned organizations received contracts totaling 72 contracts and more $21 million.
Strategy 2: Promote people with disabilities into management and leadership positions
“People with disabilities [are] qualified for a variety of positions, not just disability areas of interest.” – MA Commissioner Kristin McCosh, Boston
The Houston Mayors Office for People with Disabilities leverages relationships with state partners such as Texas Works Wonders, a program that manages community rehabilitation programs (CRPs) that provide subcontract work for municipalities and other entities. The goal of this state program is to increase employment opportunities for Texans with disabilities. As part of this state program, 75% of the labor under these contracts must be performed by Texans with disabilities. As part of the renewal of some of these contracts with the City of Houston, CRPs provided data not only of people with disabilities working on those contracts but also the supervisory and managerial breakdown in their own organizations. That was an eye-opening exercise for both the city of Houston and the contractors. We were able to leverage an opportunity to challenge the CRPs to do better in promoting their own staff with disabilities to managerial and supervisory positions.
Strategy 3: Identify jobs in the labor market that people can prepare for
Project SEARCH in Alaska identifies key industry sectors like healthcare and hospitals early in the school year to identify high need positions, to learn about the needs and rotations of those jobs, and to determine the transferable skills that are needed to get into those jobs. Great success has resulted through that interplay with business community and relationships to connect those jobs to our apprenticeship and internships programs.
In Houston, a close relationship with Texas VR, which was integrated into the Texas Workforce agency a few years ago, helped to create real-time integration of workforce commission labor information and market research into VR. Also, VR offers a 10-week paid internship the Houston Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities provides internship opportunities as well. VR works expansively to ensure internships are available across industries in and outside of government.
In Boston there are several departments with pipeline programs, e.g., EMS, Fire, Police, and School departments all have pipeline programs to bring people in at an entry level for employment. This is part of the internship program collaboration with Massachusetts VR. The summer internship programs are scattered across Boston for youth with disabilities to receive mentoring at an early stage of their careers.
Strategy 4: Pursue partnerships to expand reach and impact
One creative way Houston has tackled the challenge of working with employers is through a partnership with the Jewish Family Service (JFS) of Houston. JFS Houston for 8 years has hosted REELAbilities Houston, the largest of the REELAbilities film and arts festival in the country. This festival is 10-day event which screens films on different experiences of disability and cross-disability lenses with discussions. One component of the festival added in 2020 was the REELWorkplace component with a luncheon (pre-COVID) where we had partnership members—employers from wide range of industries—engage in open honest discussions about what it means to hire people with disabilities. The lesson learned is to find those places where employers come together and be available to them.
The Boston Disabilities Commission just received a grant to reduce stigma for hiring people with disabilities and to correct the misinformation or lack of knowledge about people with disabilities and work. The Commission is launching a campaign to reduce stigma and discuss reasonable, low-cost accommodations.
“Old beliefs about disability that pre-date the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are still in place, and we are working to break down those barriers.” – Commissioner McCosh, Boston
The Alaska Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education has focused strongly on increasing communication vehicles and marketing materials for employers. The Council has sponsored films, presentations at SHRM and other employer conferences, and speakers from Project SEARCH to showcase the kinds of low cost/no cost accommodations that are available to employers through pictures, stories, and videos. Another successful strategy has been peer-to-peer employer mentoring among employers. Training is co-led by people with disabilities to show employers and government agencies how people with disabilities are succeeding in their jobs. Employees with disabilities join presentations for the employer community.
Additionally, states and cities can partner with colleges and universities beyond the Disability Student Services offices to build a pipeline for students with disabilities into employment.
Strategy 5: Help youth with disabilities to enter the workforce early and successfully
Houston runs the Hire Houston Youth Initiative—a partnership between the city and the Greater Houston Chamber of Commerce to promote hiring of young people including youth with disabilities throughout the city and in private companies during the summer months. The program encourages youth with disabilities to participate in 12-week internships over the summer and become familiar with employer policies. It has been a great way for the City of Houston to partner with the private sector to create these opportunities for all youth inclusive of youth with disabilities.
STRIVE Boston works with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) special education department and Wentworth College to serve transition students ages 18-22 with developmental disabilities to work on employment skills such as: clocking in and out, showing up on time, and interacting with people as well as on the job skills.
In Alaska, Project SEARCH places youth with disabilities in their final year of high school into an integrated employment setting (immersed in a host business place to learn employability skills). The goal goes beyond minimum wage or community engagement to focus on successful employment outcomes with commensurate pay for that job. Interns and those hired by host employers also receive important benefits. The state has found that these youth are moving into supervisory roles.
“Take the mindset that Employment First begins at birth and set the same expectations for children and youth with disabilities as their nondisabled peers.” -Director Vandergriff, Alaska
Although the internship model in Project SEARCH internship model works well for urban youth in transition, Alaska needs a greater focus on their rural communities and transition skills curriculum to help youth transition to life in their home communities. In addition, the Alaska Governor’s Council recently received a federal grant to create a robust transition handbook with information on benefits and resources, success stories, and foundation that starts with expectations of success.
Strategy 6: Address opportunities and barriers to success during the pandemic
A number of industries in Houston such as construction or oil and petroleum focus on jobs on oil rigs and the potential liability concerns or accommodation costs; however, there are many other opportunities within those organizations to include people with disabilities.
In Houston, the city was developed and grew to include 670 square miles. A major challenge has been accessible, reliable transportation. Even with great employers who hire and offer accommodations to a great candidate, without reliable transportation the opportunity will not work out. The COVID-19 pandemic has opened up opportunities that advocates have long been fighting for, such as telework. In addition, city ordinance and transit agency changes are in process. In Houston, a person with a disability was put in charge of the transit agency and will advocate for changes at the leadership level.
In Boston, advocates have worked for long time to change the physical accessibility challenges to job entry. They are required to use the state code led by the state architectural access board, which can make it easier to make changes and fixes at the local level. While variances at the local level can be good, they do not require accessibility to employee-only spaces. Advocates are trying to change this, e.g., to ensure that bathrooms are accessible. This year the Mayor of Boston supports legislation will send a message that employees are welcome in workspaces and they will be able to use every area of the building.
In Alaska, challenges exist with employer concerns about accommodations and liabilities in certain industries like oil and processing. The Governor’s office has worked most recently with JAN to make sure that employers’ access great free resources. The office is marketing to employers to understand the supports available for all the types of industries.
Strategy 7: Barriers and opportunities during the pandemic
In Houston overall, the pandemic has necessitated an expanded horizon for everyone, government, and private sector, to reimagine and rethink the way that we work and collaborate. One challenge has been the platform we decide to use, which is not always accessible to people with visual and other impairments.
Telework has been the biggest benefit of the pandemic in places like Boston, which has a robust public transportation system but can be challenging to reach in the winter during inclement weather.
Alaska is working with the State Exchange on Employment and Disability (SEED) project funded through the US Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy to develop and disseminate policy briefs specific to the pandemic and telework. The Governor’s office is reviewing their telework policy and our Council has put forth statement to look at piloting this in the state workforce beyond the pandemic, which may also provide a budget benefit through work cost savings.
The Alaska VR director has been leading the COVID employment task force including telework, ensuring that agencies are not siloed in supporting people with disabilities while staff work remotely, and to prepare for what will come during recovery. This model has been very helpful in bringing together agencies more frequently to share activities. The Council has also published a guide for Empowerment through Employment and strategies for sharing this broadly.
Final thoughts from the panel:
If there were one policy you could put into place right now at the local or state level, what would it be?
Apply the Federal Schedule A policy at the state and local level and every private employer. If someone applies for a job and they have a disability and they meet the minimum qualifications, then they are guaranteed an interview. Not only for new or entry level jobs, but also for current employees with disabilities to guarantee an interview for next level of their career, because people with disabilities often passed over for promotions.
“Getting in front of employers is often the hardest part.” Director Cazares, Houston
Raise the Bar for Workers with Disabilities
To raise the bar for workers with disabilities, we need a new look at policies and practices to value people with disabilities and what they bring to the workplace—diversity of thought and perspective—particularly in leadership and managerial positions. At the same time, we must immediately end entrenched policies and ways of thinking, exemplified by the Fair Labor Standards Act section 14(c) (subminimum wage legislation) that allows employers and society to undervalue the work of employees with disabilities. Leading states like Alaska have already ended subminimum wage and national organizations like the National Council on Disability (NCD) are advocating for the long overdue end of this program (see NCD’s Policies from the Past in the Modern Era).
Statewide collaborations, creative partnerships, and executive level attention at the city and state levels support the greater inclusion of workers with disabilities in leadership roles. Continued sharing of successes across business and industry, including mentoring and succession planning that is inclusive of employees with disabilities, can advance careers and enhance organizations.
Learn more about IEL’s policy recommendations to Raise the Bar here.
Bookmark this page and visit us next week for more strategies on how to Raise the Bar for workers with disabilities.