Today is the day that the average disabled worker stops getting paid for the rest of the year compared to the average non-disabled worker.
According to TUC research, the disability pay gap, or the amount that the average non-disabled worker earns more than an average disabled worker, is £3,500. This means that non-disabled workers earn around 16.5%, or £1.90 an hour, more than their disabled colleagues.
This means that for the next 52 days till the end of the year, the average disabled worker is working for free compared to their non-disabled colleagues.
These serious inequalities have lead to real hardship for disabled workers over the pandemic. TUC polling shows that over the course of the pandemic 16 percent of disabled workers have seen their levels of debt rise, compared to just 11 percent for non-disabled workers. Disabled workers were also twice as likely as non-disabled workers to have used food banks over the course of the pandemic.
UNISON is calling for mandatory disability pay gap reporting for all public sector employers so we can start to get to grips with this huge problem.
Read UNISON’s bargaining guidance for reasonable adjustments in the workplace
