DR UK and University of Exeter Launch Study Into Disability Pay Gap

Researchers from the University of Exeter are working with Disability Rights UK to study the Disability pay gap across England, after calls from the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) and Disability Rights UK for mandatory Disability pay gap reporting. In particular, the project hopes to understand how the Disability pay gap varies by different personal characteristics and how local factors contribute to variation in the Disability pay gap around the country.

The Disability pay gap has previously been estimated to be around £2 per hour which is a significant amount, especially in light of the fact that Disabled people typically face higher costs-of-living than non-disabled people. There is also important variation in the Disability pay gap based on race and gender that this project will aim to shed further light on.
 
The project is being supported by Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK), which is funded the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and will run from June 2024 through until November 2025. The research team from the University of Exeter consists of Dr Daniel Derbyshire and Professor Antonieta Medina-Lara who will work closely with Disability Rights UK.
 
Dr Daniel Derbyshire, a Research Fellow in the Department of Public Health and Sports Science at the University of Exeter, said: “Previous research has shown Disabled people face significant labour market discrimination including a Disability pay gap. We believe this project can boost our understanding of the extent of the Disability pay gap across England and help to increase our understanding of the underlying drivers. Large employers with more than 250 employees, are already required to publish information relating to gender pay gaps and so there are already systems in place that could be used to extend this to Disability pay gap reporting.”
 
This project has the potential to increase awareness and transparency relating to the Disability pay gap and can add further weight to calls for Disability pay gap reporting to become mandatory for large employers.