About the EPRRTC

As recently as 2013, the employment rate of working age people with disabilities in the U.S. was 34.5 percent, compared to 76.8 for their nondisabled peers. Identifying barriers to improve the current situation and employer practices that advance the employment of people with disabilities is imperative and the aim of this project. The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Employer Practices Related to the Employment Outcomes Among Individuals with Disabilities (EPRRTC) seeks to create new knowledge of specific employer practices most strongly associated with desired employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities and the prevalence of these practices.

Literature

Scoping review of employer practices research related to the employment of people with disabiltiies Research on employer practices is increasing (line graph showing generally upward trend from 1992-2010) What is the focus? 62.5% Accommodation 55.3% Culture, climate, attitudes 52.7% Recruitment and hiring 33.8% Retention and advancement 16.9% Benefits 12.7% Discipline, dispute resolution, termination Infographic Part two: Same title How is the research conducted? Survey: 55.5% Secondary data analysis: 19.7% Literature review: 15.8% Case series: 12.4% Case study: 2.9% Qual/Quant synthesis: 0% Who is the audience for the research? Advocacy groups and service providers: 53.8% Employer and/or HR personnel: 27.6% Policymakers: 14.3% General disability interest: 3.8% Supervisors and/or coworkers: 0.5% Source: Karpur, A., VanLooy, S., & Bruyère , S. (in preparation). Employer practices for employment of people with disabilities.

Review of Employer Practices Literature

Literature related to research on employer best practices supporting the hiring, retention, and promotion of people with disabilities. These articles study the demand (employer) side of the employment equation, focusing on the ways in which employer policies and practices affect the employment outcomes of individuals with disabilities.

Literature Project Page

Datasets

Catalog of Disability
and Compensation Variables

Browse or search across 11 major datasets for variables related to: disability and health conditions, work and employer characteristics including compensation such as pay and benefits. The catalog provides: variable names, survey questions, response categories and related variables that can be exported into an excel spreadsheet for your use.

Datasets Project Page

Cross dataset catalog of disability and compensation variables A tool that allows users to explore the content and hundreds of variables regarding disability and health conditions, work, compensation, and employer characteristics across 11 major datasets Step 1: Access dataset catalog at www.DisabilityStatistics.org/eprrtc Step 2: Search by topic, dataset or keyword (Illustrated with an image of the search screen) End page one of infographic Infographic page 2: Same title Step 3: Review and download results. Illustrated with an image of a results screen showing that the search results in a category, data source name, variable names and labels, the question that is used to collect the data, possible allowable answers to the question, and notes.

A tool that allows users to explore the content and hundreds of variables regarding disability and health conditions, work, compensation, and employer characteristics across 11 major datasets

EEOC Charges

Identifying patterns in employment discrimination charges filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 2010, 23% of ADA charges cited retaliation in the workplace, almost doubling from the 13% in 2006. (note: These words are in bars of a bar chart which also shows the following data: 2010: 23% 2009: 21% 2008: 19% 2007: 14% 2006: 13% Source: von Schrader, S. & Nazarov, Z. (2013). Discrimination charges: Identifying patterns and employer factors. Presentation at the State of the Science Conference on Innovative Research on Employment Practices: Improving Employment for People with Disabilities, Washington DC, October, 2013.

Discrimination Charges:
Identifying Patterns and Employer Factors

Key findings to date in an examination of data on employment discrimination charges filed under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Trends and patterns in these data, such as charge filing rates and characteristics of employer receiving charges, are provided and the implications and the importance of employer practice in minimizing perceived disability workplace discrimination are discussed.

EEOC Charges Project Page

Compensation

Analysis of Wage and Total
Compensation Gaps by Disability Measure

In this study, several comprehensive national demographic surveys are linked by occupation to rich occupation-level data on benefits to construct a careful measure of total compensation. These are used to explore the pay gaps between workers with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. Considerable heterogeneity is found in these estimated gaps by measures of pay, definition of disability and data source used.

Compensation Project Page

Analysis of wage and total compensation gaps. For every $1 earned in wages by a man without a disability, a man with a disability earns 90.7 cents. *Controlling for schooling, experience, race, marital status and occupation. Source: Hallock, K., Jin, X., & Barrington, L. (2013). The wage gap and the total compensation gap by disability status. Working paper. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Yang-Tan Institute.

Health

Influence of employer-provided health insurance on job change patterns among employees with disabilities. Employed people with disabilities WITH access to employer paid health insurance are 40% less likely to change jobs than those without employer health insurance.

Employer-Provided Health
Insurance and Job Mobility

Access to healthcare remains to be a critical element in employment of persons with disabilities. Utilizing nationally existing restricted-access secondary data sets, we observed that access to employer-paid health insurance reduced job-mobility among employees with disabilities and led to longer work-tenure. This research demonstrates the value of offering health insurance in retaining qualified employees with disabilities. The findings of the Cornell research, in light of upcoming changes in health insurance policies as a result of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, are discussed.

Health Benefits Project Page

Skills

Patterns of Employment and Skills Match: Implications for Rehabilitation Policy and Practice

Research was conducted using the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET to consider characteristics of jobs that are more likely associated with persons with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. Results illustrate and evaluate whether persons with disabilities are in different kinds of jobs and how 'in demand' specific job types are. In addition, whether persons with disabilities are over- or under-represented in the fastest growing jobs is discussed.

Skills Project Page

Aging Workforce

Absence and disability management practices for an aging workforce. 86% of organizations are concerned, but only 36% are considering aging workforce issues in ADM program design. Source: von Schrader, S., Bruyère, S., Malzer, V., & Erickson, W. (2013). Absence and disability management practices for an aging workforce. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Yang-Tan Institute. Report available at https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/edicollect/1320/von Schrader, S. Bruyere, S., Malzer, V. & Erickson, W. (2013). Absence and disability management practices for an aging workforce. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Yang-Tan Institute. Report available at: https://digitalcommons.ilr.edu/edicollect/1320/

Disability Management Employer Coalition Survey

This project presents a survey, conducted in collaboration with the Disability Management Employers Coalition (DMEC), which examined leading practices for retaining an aging workforce from the perspective of over 800 disability management professionals.

Aging Project Page

Practices

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Survey

This project presents the findings and implications of data gathered from over 675 human resource (HR) professionals from the membership of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). This employer survey measured the level of implementation and effectiveness of a wide variety of disability inclusive practices and policies and examined perceived barriers to the employment of persons with disabilities

The Conference Board Employer Working Groups

Employers' perceptions are critical input to increasing understanding of how to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities. A series of six focus groups of employer representatives from memberships if The Conference Board and the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University were conducted to identify key issues of concern, policies and practices seen as currently effective, as well as emerging issues, as well as to seek input in shaping the Employer Practices RRTC research agenda, and review preliminary findings to inform subsequent analyses. Results highlights of these employer working groups are presented, and select employer representatives serving as discussants on this session's panel discussed the challenges and opportunities they face in working to recruit, retain and advance people with disabilities.

Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies Employer Working Groups

This project builds on previous project efforts to gain "top of the house"strategic perspectives from corporate HR. With the 60 CAHRS member companies and access to top-level HR executives this project aims to identify HR/employer metrics to assess employer practice and policy impacts.

Effective practices for hiring individuals with disabilities Employers who have internships for people with disabilities are 4.5 times more likely to hire a person with a disability than those who do not have this practice. Source: Erickson, W., von Schrader, S., Bruyère , S., & VanLooy, S. (2013). Disability-inclusive employer practices and hiring of individuals with disabilities. Working Paper. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Yang-Tan Institute.

Practices Project Page

Inside Workplaces

Inside workplaces: Factors influencing engagement of people with disabilities Employees with disabilities are at least 60% more likely to disclose their disability to their supervisor than to HR. Source: Nishii, L., & Bruyère , S. (2013). Inside the workplace: Case studies of factors influencing engagement of people with disabilities. Presentation at the State of the Science Conference on Innovative Research on Employment Practices: Improving Employment for People with Disabilities, Washington DC, October 2013.

Case Studies of Factors Influencing Engagement of People with Disabilities

In contrast to the cross-organizational research design of our other projects, the purpose of this project was to conduct a case study of one federal and one private organization. Results to date highlights the employee's view of three primary issues emerging across several other related Cornell research projects: 1) self-disclosure, both of one's disability status and also of one's need for an accommodation; 2) perceptions related to disability discrimination (including factors that impact their likelihood); and 3) employee and managerial perceptions of, and experiences with (where applicable) disability policies and practices within their organization.

Inside Workplaces Project Page

 
NIDRR Home

Project Information

This rehabilitation research and training center is funded to Cornell University by the U.S. Department of Education National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) for a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Employer Practices Related to Employment Outcomes among Individuals with Disabilities (grant #H133B100017). The contents of this conference do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government (Edgar, 75.620 (b)).

Partners:

Cornell University's Yang-Tan Institute (YTI), Cornell University's Institute for Compensation Studies (ICS), Cornell University's Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS), The Conference Board (TCB), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Disability Management Employers' Coalition (DMEC), Office of Disability & Employment Policy's National Technical Assistance, Policy, and Research Center for Employers at Cornell University, ILR School's Human Capital Development Program (HCD)