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The Disability Pay Gap Within and Across Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Forth, John

    (City St George's, University of London)

  • Jones, Melanie K.

    (Cardiff University)

Abstract

We assess the extent to which the UK disability pay gap is a consequence of the distribution of workers across firms and within-firm disability pay gaps. We do so by applying decomposition methods to newly-linked data which matches high quality information from employer payroll records to Census data on disability. Our findings indicate that the distribution of disabled and non-disabled employees across firms acts to reinforce within-firm disability-related pay inequality in England and Wales. However, both the disability pay gap and unexplained disability pay gap predominately exist within rather than between firms, supporting the introduction of employer disability pay gap reporting in the UK.

Suggested Citation

  • Forth, John & Jones, Melanie K., 2025. "The Disability Pay Gap Within and Across Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 17679, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17679
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    disability pay gap; wage discrimination; linked employer-employee data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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