Changes in wage discrimination against people with disabilities: 1984-93

A group of health-impaired workers who self-report in the Survey of In come and Program Participation that their productivity is not affected by their impairment is used to separately measure the effects of discrimination from the effects of poor health on earnings in 1984 and 1993. The results indicate that, in 1984, only 3.7 percentage points of the earnings gap is due to discrimination and the amount of discrimination did not decrease by 1993. Although discrimination did nor change over the 1984 to 1993 period the negative effects of poor health on the earnings of people with disabilities fell substantially.