The Aging Workforce and Disability Accommodation: Employee Perceptions and Potential Policy Implications Kevin Banks, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University.

The Aging Workforce and Disability Accommodation: Employee Perceptions

and Potential Policy Implications

Kevin Banks, Faculty of Law, Queen’s UniversityRichard Chaykowski, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University

George Slotsve, Department of Economics, Northern Illinois University

Overview• Policy context: labour market exclusion and its consequences• Role of the legal duty to accommodate• Potential for improved implementation of the law• Information needs• Plan of analysis• Initial findings in PALS data• Conclusions (tentative)

We can expect the incidence of disability among workers to increase as the population ages

Increased incidence of labour market disadvantage: PWD less likely to be employed

Source: Galarneau and Radulescu, 2009

PWD more likely to be unemployed

Source: OECD 2010a

Limits on career progressionThose experiencing the onset of an ongoing health or activity limitation while working:

• are more likely to remain at their initial job (are less mobile in the labour market);

• tend to start out with lower wages and to fall further behind their co-workers;

• fall significantly behind in earnings, reflecting emergent gap in hours worked and a widening disparity in wages; and

• are less likely to move into management.

Source: Spector, 2010

Lower Earnings

Source: Spector, 2010

Poverty

Policy Issues• Lost “opportunity equal with other individuals to make for

themselves in the lives that they are able”. (Canadian Human Rights Act, section 2)

• Workers lost to a labour market with slowing supply growth• Poverty is one of the strongest correlates of poor health, and

poverty reduction can improve health outcomes. (Forget, 2011)• Unemployment may aggravate health conditions. (Canadian Public

Health Association, 1996)• Better use of relatively large income support programs: in 2007

– Canada’s public expenditures on disability sickness programs were probably more than 1.5 times those on unemployment benefits, and

– Total public and private expenditures on disability benefits were about $25 billion, of which about 80% public and 20% private (OECD, 2010a and 2010b).

The multiple causes of labour market disadvantage

Social and economic conditions outside the workplace:

• Barriers to education (ASSETS, 2008)• Income support systems that create disincentives to paid

employment (OECD, 2010; Stapleton 2011)• Lack of mobility support• Lack of social capital (Nishii, Rubineau and Bruyere, 2011)

Causes within workplace relations

• Lack of job readiness• Discrimination, including failure to provide accommodation

– Lack of information– Stereotyping– Costs (direct and indirect)

• Accommodation amounting to undue hardship• Inclusive practices beyond those legally required not

implemented due to lack of information or incentives

The Important Gap in Accommodation

• In 2006, 48% of working-age PWD required some form of accommodation to work safely and effectively.

• 37% of employed PWD required accommodations.

• But 59% percent of unemployed PWD required accommodations. (Cahill, 2011)

• A large gap remains even after considering differences in severity and accommodation types.

Evidence of Widespread Discrimination at Work

Evidence of widespread and probably systemic discrimination in workplace relations:

• Adjusted pay gap of about 25%, most probably the result of hiring and job placement decisions rather than overt pay discrimination. (Gunderson 2011).

• PWD reports of widespread discrimination and harassment (e.g. Public Service Commission, 2011; Shier, Graham and Jones, 2009)

• Differential access to on the job training opportunities – about 2/3 as likely to receive training in 2007 (ASSETS 2007).

• The disproportionate percentage of human rights cases involving disability: 54% of new applications to the HRTO in 2011-12, compared to 25% for the next most frequent ground (sex, pregnancy and gender identity).

Reasons to think that implementing anti-discrimination law could be done better

1. A number of countries have implemented advice and information services: often possible to make a business case for accommodation once the information is available. (OECD, 2010a)

2. Limited reach of complaint-driven approaches. (Federal Labour Standards Review Commission, 2006)

3. Incentive problems may make some practices particularly impervious to case by case adjudication.

Countering the difficult insider/outsider problem Addressing the problem of private costs and public

benefits: e.g. Job Access Australia Employment Assistance Fund

Information needs

• Which accommodations are most likely to be needed as the population ages.

• Where and when such accommodations are provided and not provided

• Reasons why they are not provided:– lack of information– stereotyping or other invidious perceptions– costs (direct or indirect).

1. How does the incidence of disability increase with age andhow is it distributed among workers and workplaces?

2. What kinds of accommodation at work are disabled workers most likely to need?

3. Given that you are an employee with a disability and that you require a workplace accommodation, then what factors determine the likelihood that you receive one?

Key Issues that we analyze:

Defining the Sample andScope of the Empirical Analysis

Statistics Canada data: PALS 2006   Survey of individuals across Canada; we restrict the analysis to the employed;

The total employed “sample” size (n) is 36565.

The sub-sample of those employed persons with a disability has 5531 observations.

7.13 percent of the employed population has a disability.

The usual caveats apply since disability limitations and whether a worker requires an accommodation or is provided with an accommodation are self-reported (and as a result based on the worker’s perception).

Variable Name Sex Age Group (5 Year Age Groups) Urban Mother Tongue Education (Completed) Marital Status Low Income (After Tax) Employment Income Industry Occupation

Additional variables available for employees with a disability

Covered by a UnionUsual Hours per WeekPaid WorkerEstablishment EmploymentMultiple LocationsEmployment at All LocationsPermanent JobUnemploymentChanged WorkChanged Amount of WorkChanged JobDeniedSeverity of Limitation

Cross-Section of First Wave of Results: Age, Disability, and Accommodation

Outline:

- Analysis of the incidence of disability within employed workforce

- Profile of accommodation needs of workers

- Analysis of the effects of some key worker and job characteristics on the likelihood of receiving accommodation.

Among those with a disability, the incidence is markedly skewed towards the higher ages.

Among those with a disability, the incidence among males and females is similar.

Relative to males, for females, the difference in probability of having a disability is smallest for younger, or for high income persons;the difference in probability is greatest for females who are older and low income;the difference grows with age and as females have lower income.

The incidence among those with a disability is higher in BPS industries and in Primary, Construction, and Transportation industries.

Highest Incidence: •Job redesign; •Modified hours; •ergonomics; •chair & back.

Highest Incidence: •Modified hours; •ergonomics; •Parking•Elevator•Washrooms•transportation

Probability of NOT provided is lower for females (relative to males) and those with HS relative to university educated

Increase in age of 5 yrs increases the probability of accommodation not being provided;

Increases in hours worked per week increases the probability of accommodation not being provided;

Increases in the duration of the limitation increases the probability of accommodation not being provided;

Accommodation provided or not provided by

i. Type of accommodation required:

and

ii. By selected characteristics:

Job redesign Modified hours or days Ergonomic Station Special chair/back

support

Sex Union status Usual hours per

week

Relative to males (on average):Only the probability of accommodation for modified hours or days is lower for females.

- The difference in probability is constant across ages.

The largest (positive) difference in probability is with respect to ergonomic station.

Relative to nonunionized employees (on average):Only the probability of accommodation for modified hours or days is lower for unionized workers.

- The difference in probability is constant across ages.

The largest (positive) difference in probability is with respect to ergonomic station; and is large for chairs/back support.

Relative to those working fewer hours (on average):only the probability of accommodation for special chair or back support is higher for those working longer hours. - The difference in probability increases with age but then declines as age increases past about 60.

The largest (positive) difference in probability is with respect to chairs/back support.

Bibliography

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with disabilities: The Power of social networks . Presentation to AAFES, September 22, 2011.• OECD (2010a) Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers-Synthesis. France: OECD Publishing, 2010• OECD (2010b). Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers-Canada: Opportunities for Collaboration: Canada, 2010• • Participation and Activity Limitation Survey 2006• • Public Service Commission of Canada (2011) Recruitment of Persons with Disabilities – A Literature Review• • Shier, M., Graham, J., Jones, M. (2009) “Barriers to employment as experienced by disabled people: a qualitative analysis in

Calgary and Regina, Canada” in Disability and Society, Jan2009, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p63-75.• • Spector, Aron (2010) Examining the effects of onset of an on-going disability on labour market attachment, job retention

and career progression, Policy Research Directorate, Human Resource and Skills Development Canada• • Stapleton, John and Procyk, Stephanie (2011) What Stops Us from Working? New ways to make work pay, by fixing the

treatment of earnings under the Ontario Disability Support Program