Disability pay gap widens

New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals the disability pay gap increased in 2021 — to 13.8% from 13.5% the year before.

This gap is nearly a fifth wider than it had been in 2014 when disabled employees earned 11.7% less than non-disabled employees.

In real terms, this equates to a £1.93 difference per hour between disabled and non-disabled workers — adding up to around £3,500 a year in a full-time job.

The widest pay gap was experienced by employees with autism as their main impairment — a third less (33.5%) than non-disabled employees.

They were followed by those who identified their main disability as “severe or specific learning difficulties” (29.7%) and epilepsy (25.4%).

Disabled employees who reported that they were limited a lot in their day-to-day activities consistently had a wider pay gap to non-disabled employees than disabled employees whose day-to-day activities were limited a little.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady commented that “disabled workers deserve better”.

She said: “It’s time for big employers to be forced to publish their disability pay gaps, to help shine a light on poor workplace practices that fuel inequality at work.”

And she said the UK government should force companies with more than 50 staff to publish their disability pay gaps, with the Equality and Human Rights Commission receiving funding to help it enforce the rights of disabled workers.