Overall, full-time, year-round workers with disabilities earn only 87 cents for every dollar earned by workers without disabilities.
However, among people with similar jobs and work schedules, the average earnings of workers with disabilities are very close to, or no different from, the earnings of workers without disabilities.
In fact, when differences in the occupational composition of workers with and without disabilities are taken into account, the overall gap in average earnings falls by about half.
A few occupations stand out as exceptions, with notable differences in median income between the two groups. These occupations typically have much higher median incomes for both people with and without disabilities. These include the following occupations:
CEO. Lawyer. Marketing and Sales Manager. Financial Analyst.
However, the average income of doctors and surgeons, who rank at the top of the income rankings, is the same for those with disabilities and those without.
Age may play a significant role in hiding the income gap between workers with disabilities and those without disabilities. In most occupations, the average age of workers with disabilities exceeds the average age of workers without disabilities. Because income tends to increase with age, this difference in average age also tends to inflate the overall average income of workers with disabilities compared to workers without disabilities.
But despite similar average earnings for full-time, year-round workers, people with disabilities are less likely to earn a full-time wage. In nearly all occupations, workers with disabilities are less likely to work full-time, year-round. So if we included all workers, regardless of work schedule or occupation, the overall earnings gap would widen, with workers with disabilities earning only 66 cents on the dollar more than workers without disabilities.