No Progress on the Disability Pay Gap

That’s three weeks of November and the entire month of December without pay. The Disability Pay Gap means disabled workers are losing out on almost £4,300 annually.

The gap stands at £82.25 a week—more than the average household spends on food. Alarmingly, the gap is widening. Last year, the disability pay gap was £2.00 per hour; this year it has risen by 17.2%, reversing the progress made previously.

Trade unions and disabled people’s organisations are now urging the government to take decisive action to close the gap. They are calling for disability pay gap reporting to be made mandatory, as is already the case for gender pay gap reporting.

In a separate report released earlier this year, it was revealed that the additional cost of living for disabled people has risen to over £1,000 a month, compounding the financial pressures of everyday living.

PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote commented: "This latest research from the TUC shows that in the past year, there has been absolutely no progress in closing the disability pay gap. The new government faces a stark choice: they can sit here next year lamenting another 12 months of wasted opportunity, or they can take real steps to address the gap by making disability pay gap reporting mandatory, just as they have done with the gender pay gap."

Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the TUC, said “Everyone who works for a living deserves to earn a decent living. But under the last government the pay gap for disabled workers just kept getting worse.

“Urgent action is now needed to improve opportunities for disabled workers. After 14 years of Tory failures and inaction, Labour’s commitment to introduce mandatory disability pay gap reporting is a welcome first step.”

The research also reveals that, much like last year, disabled women are the hardest hit when compared to non-disabled men. For disabled women the gap is £3.05 a hour, which makes a gap of more than £5,500 a year.