In 2025, 22.8% of Americans with a disability were employed, compared with 65.2% of people without one, a gap of more than 42 percentage points (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, People with a Disability 2025). Yet inside that gap sit the strongest disability jobs numbers on record: the employment-population ratio for working-age people with disabilities stood at 38.1% in 2025, and monthly tracking shows employment holding near its all-time high through mid-2026 (Kessler Foundation and University of New Hampshire, nTIDE May 2026). The economics undercut most employer hesitation: 49.4% of workplace accommodations cost nothing, and the rest have a median one-time cost of 300 dollars (Job Accommodation Network, 2025). Companies that lead on disability inclusion generated 1.6 times more revenue and 2.6 times more net income than their peers (Accenture, The Disability Inclusion Imperative, 2023). This analysis consolidates data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Eurostat, the Job Accommodation Network, Accenture, and 13 other primary sources to map where disability employment stands in 2026.
TL;DR
- 22.8% of people with a disability were employed in 2025 versus 65.2% of people without one (BLS, People with a Disability 2025).
- The unemployment rate for people with a disability rose to 8.3% in 2025, double the 4.1% rate for people without one (BLS, 2026).
- Among working-age people (16 to 64) with a disability, the employment-population ratio was 38.1% (BLS, 2025).
- 6,593,000 workers with disabilities made up 4.4% of all U.S. workers ages 16 to 64 in June 2026 (nTIDE, Kessler Foundation/UNH).
- Median earnings: 50,762 dollars for workers with disabilities versus 60,915 dollars without, about 83 cents per dollar (2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium).
- 30% of workers with a disability work part time, versus 17% of workers without one (BLS, 2025).
- Working from home explains 68% to 85% of the post-pandemic rise in full-time employment among people with a physical disability (NBER, Bloom, Dahl and Rooth).
- 49.4% of workplace accommodations cost employers nothing; the median one-time cost of the rest is 300 dollars (Job Accommodation Network).
- Disability inclusion leaders posted 1.6x revenue and 2.6x net income versus peers (Accenture, 2023).
- About 25% of employees have a disability or limiting health condition, but companies report only 4% to 7% (BCG, 2023).
- Disability discrimination appeared in 38.0% of the 88,531 discrimination charges filed with the EEOC in FY2024 (EEOC).
- The EU disability employment gap was 24.0 percentage points in 2024; the UK gap was 29.7 points in 2025 (Eurostat; UK DWP).
1. The Employment Gap in 2026
Two things are true at once: disability employment is near its historical peak, and the gap versus everyone else remains enormous. The BLS 2025 annual data put the all-ages employment-population ratio at 22.8% for people with a disability, but that figure is dragged down by age composition, since the population with a disability skews much older. Among working-age people (16 to 64), 38.1% were employed, and nTIDE tracking shows employment still near the record plateau that formed after the pandemic (labor force participation holding near 41%). The softness is on the unemployment side: joblessness among people with a disability rose to 8.3% in 2025, climbing faster than the rate for everyone else.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employment-population ratio, with vs without a disability (2025) | 22.8% vs 65.2% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Employment-population ratio, ages 16-64 with a disability | 38.1% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Employment-population ratio, ages 65+ with a disability | 7.8% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Employment-population ratio, with a disability (2024) | 22.7% | BLS, The Economics Daily 2025 |
| Unemployment rate, with vs without a disability (2025) | 8.3% vs 4.1% | BLS, The Economics Daily 2026 |
| Change in unemployment rate over 2025 | +0.8 pt (disability) vs +0.3 pt | BLS, The Economics Daily 2026 |
| Workers with disabilities, ages 16-64 (June 2026) | 6,593,000 (4.4% of 150,918,000) | nTIDE, Kessler Foundation/UNH |
| Labor force participation, ages 16-64 with a disability (2026) | ~41% | nTIDE, Kessler Foundation/UNH |
Note: the October 2025 Current Population Survey was not collected due to the federal government shutdown, so 2025 annual figures are 11-month averages and not strictly comparable with earlier years (BLS).
2. How People with Disabilities Work
The shape of work differs as much as the amount of it. Workers with a disability are nearly twice as likely to work part time, half again as likely to be self-employed, and markedly underrepresented in the highest-paying occupation group, according to the BLS 2025 release. 30% of workers with a disability usually worked part time in 2025, versus about 17% of workers without one. The unemployment gap also compounds with race and holds even at the top of the education ladder, where a bachelor’s degree cuts the rate but does not close the ratio: 5.3% versus 2.5%.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Usually work part time, with vs without a disability | 30% vs 17% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Self-employed, with vs without a disability | 9.1% vs 5.9% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| In management/professional occupations, with vs without | 37.5% vs 43.9% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| In service occupations, with vs without | 20.0% vs 16.5% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| In sales and office occupations, with vs without | 21.0% vs 18.6% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| In production/transportation/material moving, with vs without | 13.8% vs 12.0% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Unemployment rate with a disability, by race/ethnicity (2025) | 11.8% Black, 9.5% Hispanic, 7.9% Asian, 7.3% White | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Unemployment rate, bachelor’s degree or higher, with vs without | 5.3% vs 2.5% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
Context: elevated self-employment cuts both ways; it can signal entrepreneurship, but also a fallback when standard workplaces fail to accommodate.
3. The Pay Gap and Differences by Disability Type
Getting hired is only the first gap; the paycheck carries a second one. The 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium, built on 2024 American Community Survey data, shows full-time, full-year workers with disabilities earning about 83 cents for every dollar earned by workers without disabilities. Compounded over a 47-year career, the median gap of just over 10,000 dollars a year adds up to about 470,000 dollars in 2024 dollars. Averages also hide a wide spread across disability types: employment ranges from a majority of people with hearing disabilities down to fewer than one in five people with self-care disabilities.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median earnings, workers with vs without disabilities (2024) | $50,762 vs $60,915 | 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium (ACS) |
| Earnings ratio | ~83 cents per dollar | 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium |
| Annual median earnings gap | just over $10,000 | 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium |
| Estimated career earnings gap (47 years, 2024 dollars) | ~$470,000 | 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium |
| Employment rate, people with hearing disabilities | 59.4% | 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium |
| Employment rate, people with self-care disabilities | 17.9% | 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium |
Note: the by-type spread matters for policy design; a program tuned to the “average” person with a disability targets almost no one’s actual situation.
4. Remote Work Rewrote the Math
The single biggest structural change in disability employment this decade did not come from disability policy at all. An NBER study by Bloom, Dahl, and Rooth found that working from home rose four-fold after the pandemic, and that a 1 percentage point increase in remote work raises full-time employment among people with a physical disability by 1.0%. The authors estimate the rise in working from home explains 68% to 85% of the post-pandemic increase in full-time employment among people with a physical disability. By early 2024, people with disabilities were teleworking at a slightly higher rate than everyone else, per BLS telework data, which makes return-to-office mandates a disability employment risk hiding in plain sight.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Telework rate, with vs without a disability (Q1 2024) | 24.4% vs 22.8% | BLS, Beyond the Numbers: Telework Trends |
| U.S. workers teleworking (Q1 2024) | 35.5 million (22.9% of those at work) | BLS, Beyond the Numbers: Telework Trends |
| Rise in working from home since the pandemic | ~4x | NBER Working Paper 32943 |
| Effect of +1 pt working from home on full-time employment (physical disability) | +1.0% | NBER Working Paper 32943 |
| Share of post-pandemic full-time employment rise explained by remote work | 68% to 85% | NBER Working Paper 32943 |
| Mechanism identified | lower commuting costs, control of working conditions | NBER Working Paper 32943 |
Context: the study covers physical disabilities specifically; remote work also removes barriers tied to sensory and cognitive disabilities that are harder to measure in wage data.
5. Accommodations: Low Cost, Measured Return
The most persistent myth in disability employment is that accommodating workers is expensive. The Job Accommodation Network’s employer survey, which drew 5,406 responses from employers contacting JAN between 2019 and 2024, prices the myth: 49.4% of accommodations cost absolutely nothing, and those with a one-time cost had a median of just 300 dollars. The return side is equally concrete, with 85% of employers citing employee retention as a direct benefit, per the U.S. Department of Labor’s summary of the research. Many zero-cost accommodations are simply software settings: dictation for workers who cannot type comfortably, screen readers for blind and low-vision employees, and captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing colleagues in meetings.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodations with zero cost | 49.4% | JAN, Low Cost High Impact (2019-2024 data) |
| Median one-time accommodation cost | $300 | JAN, Low Cost High Impact |
| Median annual cost of ongoing accommodations | $3,750 | JAN, Low Cost High Impact |
| Employers citing retention of a valued employee as a benefit | 85% | JAN, via U.S. DOL/ODEP |
| Employers citing improved productivity | 53% | JAN, Low Cost High Impact |
| Employers citing improved morale | 30% | JAN, Low Cost High Impact |
| Employers contacting JAN to retain a current employee | 56% | JAN, Low Cost High Impact |
| Survey base | 5,406 responses from 26,028 employers surveyed | JAN, Low Cost High Impact |
Context: the median ongoing cost of 3,750 dollars a year sits well below the cost of replacing a trained employee, which is the comparison employers actually face.
6. The Business Case and the Disclosure Gap
Employers systematically undercount their own disabled workforce, which means most are running inclusion programs against numbers that are wrong by a factor of four. A BCG survey of nearly 28,000 employees in 16 countries found about 25% have a disability or health condition that limits a major life activity, while companies typically report 4% to 7%. Accenture’s analysis of 346 Disability Equality Index companies found that disability inclusion leaders generated 1.6 times more revenue, 2.6 times more net income, and 2 times more economic profit than other participants (Accenture, The Disability Inclusion Imperative, 2023). The disclosure gap is largely about non-apparent conditions, from chronic illness to dyslexia, that employees keep quiet for fear of stigma.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employees with a disability or limiting health condition | ~25% | BCG, 2023 (survey of ~28,000 employees, 16 countries) |
| Share of workforce companies typically report as disabled | 4% to 7% | BCG, 2023 |
| Employees with disabilities who do not fully disclose at work | 76% | Accenture, The Disability Inclusion Imperative 2023 |
| Revenue advantage of disability inclusion leaders | 1.6x | Accenture, 2023 |
| Net income advantage of disability inclusion leaders | 2.6x | Accenture, 2023 |
| Likelihood of outperforming industry peers on productivity | +25% | Accenture, 2023 |
| Companies submitting to the 2025 Disability Index | 655 (8 countries) | Disability:IN, 2025 Disability Index Report |
| Index participants offering flexible work / disability ERGs | 99% / 90% | Disability:IN, 2025 Disability Index Report |
Note: BCG employees also reported the cost of poor inclusion: workers with disabilities were 6 percentage points less likely to say they are happy at work and nearly 15 points more likely to say work harms their wellbeing.
7. Policy, Enforcement, and the Global Picture
Enforcement pressure is rising while U.S. policy stalls. Disability discrimination appeared in 38.0% of the 88,531 charges filed with the EEOC in FY2024, a year in which total charges rose more than 9%, and ADA cases made up almost half of the agency’s merits lawsuits. Meanwhile the Department of Labor withdrew its proposed phase-out of Section 14(c) subminimum wage certificates in July 2025, leaving roughly 40,000 workers earning below the federal minimum wage. Globally, the WHO counts 1.3 billion people, 16% of the world’s population, living with significant disability, and every major economy that measures it reports a double-digit employment gap (Eurostat: 24.0 points in the EU; UK DWP: 29.7 points). Access to workplace assistive technology is a global bottleneck too: the WHO and UNICEF estimate 2.5 billion people need at least one assistive product, from hearing aids to communication devices, and nearly 1 billion are denied access.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Discrimination charges filed with the EEOC (FY2024) | 88,531 (+9% vs FY2023) | EEOC, FY2024 reports |
| Share of EEOC charges alleging disability discrimination | 38.0% | EEOC, FY2024 enforcement statistics |
| ADA suits among EEOC merits lawsuits (FY2024) | 48 (almost half) | EEOC, Office of General Counsel FY2024 |
| Section 503 utilization goal for federal contractors | 7% of each job group | ADA National Network / OFCCP |
| Workers paid subminimum wage under Section 14(c) | ~40,579 (May 2024) | U.S. DOL / Federal Register |
| EU disability employment gap (2024) | 24.0 points | Eurostat, EU-SILC/LFS |
| EU unemployment rate, with vs without a disability (2024) | 9.5% vs 5.9% | Eurostat |
| UK employment rate, disabled vs non-disabled (Q2 2025) | 52.8% vs 82.5% (gap 29.7 pts) | UK DWP, Employment of Disabled People 2025 |
Context: the Return on Disability Group estimates people with disabilities and their families control more than 18 trillion dollars in spending power, which reframes inclusion as market access, not charity (Return on Disability, Global Economics of Disability 2024).
Summary: Disability Employment by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employment-population ratio, with vs without a disability (2025) | 22.8% vs 65.2% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Working-age (16-64) employment-population ratio | 38.1% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Unemployment rate, with vs without a disability (2025) | 8.3% vs 4.1% | BLS, The Economics Daily 2026 |
| Workers with disabilities, ages 16-64 (June 2026) | 6,593,000 (4.4% of workers) | nTIDE, Kessler Foundation/UNH |
| Labor force participation, ages 16-64 (2026) | ~41% | nTIDE, Kessler Foundation/UNH |
| Part-time share, with vs without a disability | 30% vs 17% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Self-employment, with vs without a disability | 9.1% vs 5.9% | BLS, People with a Disability 2025 |
| Median earnings, with vs without disabilities (2024) | $50,762 vs $60,915 | 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium |
| Earnings ratio | ~83 cents per dollar | 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium |
| Employment rate by type, hearing vs self-care disabilities | 59.4% vs 17.9% | 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium |
| Telework rate, with vs without a disability (Q1 2024) | 24.4% vs 22.8% | BLS, Beyond the Numbers |
| Post-pandemic full-time employment rise explained by remote work | 68% to 85% | NBER Working Paper 32943 |
| Accommodations with zero cost | 49.4% | JAN, Low Cost High Impact |
| Median one-time accommodation cost | $300 | JAN, Low Cost High Impact |
| Employers citing retention as an accommodation benefit | 85% | JAN, via U.S. DOL/ODEP |
| Revenue / net income advantage of inclusion leaders | 1.6x / 2.6x | Accenture, 2023 |
| Employees with a disability vs share companies report | ~25% vs 4-7% | BCG, 2023 |
| Share of EEOC charges alleging disability discrimination (FY2024) | 38.0% of 88,531 | EEOC |
| EU / UK disability employment gaps | 24.0 pts / 29.7 pts | Eurostat 2024; UK DWP 2025 |
| People worldwide with significant disability | 1.3 billion (16%) | WHO |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered directly from primary government releases, named research reports, and employer surveys published in 2023-2026, cross-referencing overlapping metrics where possible and flagging figures whose most recent edition predates 2024.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, People with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2025 (2026; 2025 annual averages from 11 months of CPS data)
- BLS, The Economics Daily: Unemployment rate for people with a disability rose to 8.3 percent in 2025 (2026)
- BLS, The Economics Daily: 22.7 percent of people with a disability were employed in 2024 (2025)
- BLS, Beyond the Numbers: Telework trends (2025)
- Kessler Foundation and University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability, National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) (monthly; May-June 2026 editions cited)
- Center for Research on Disability (UNH), 2026 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium (2026; 2024 American Community Survey data)
- NBER Working Paper 32943, Work from Home and Disability Employment (Bloom, Dahl, Rooth) (2024)
- Job Accommodation Network, Workplace Accommodations: Low Cost, High Impact (2025 update; employer surveys 2019-2024)
- U.S. Department of Labor, ODEP news release on JAN accommodation research (2023)
- Accenture, Disability:IN and AAPD, The Disability Inclusion Imperative (Nov 2023; 346 Disability Equality Index companies, 2015-2022)
- Boston Consulting Group, Companies Are Drastically Underestimating How Many of Their Employees Have Disabilities (2023; survey of ~28,000 employees in 16 countries, most recent available)
- Disability:IN, 2025 Disability Index Report (2025)
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, FY2024 Annual Performance and Office of General Counsel Reports (2025)
- ADA National Network, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act Rules
- Federal Register, Employment of Workers With Disabilities Under Section 14(c); Withdrawal (July 2025)
- Eurostat, Disability statistics: unemployment and people outside the labour force (2024 EU-SILC/LFS data)
- UK Department for Work and Pensions, The Employment of Disabled People 2025 (2025)
- World Health Organization, Disability and Health fact sheet (1.3 billion estimate from the 2022 Global Report on Health Equity, most recent available)
- WHO and UNICEF, Global Report on Assistive Technology (2022, most recent available)
- Return on Disability Group, The Global Economics of Disability 2024 (Sept 2024)
Data watch: the BLS publishes its next annual disability release in early 2027 (2026 annual averages), and monthly A-6 disability data continue through 2026; nTIDE updates monthly; the 2027 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium (2025 ACS data) is expected in early 2027; Eurostat refreshes EU-SILC disability indicators annually; the UK DWP publishes its next disability employment update in 2026; and Disability:IN releases the 2026 Disability Index in mid-2026, so several figures above will have newer editions within two quarters.
Last updated: July 18, 2026. We update this page quarterly as new data is published.