Researchers at Syracuse and Rutgers universities have found that employers appear to discriminate against well-qualified applicants with a disability.

In the study, which was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, researchers used fake cover letters to see how employers handle job applications from people with disabilities. Small businesses were least likely to call back the disabled candidates, said Lisa Schur, chair of the department of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers.

“We noticed the biggest gaps between abled and disabled applicants with small businesses,” Schur said.

She said this is because of the Americans with Disability Act regulations. Employers with 15 or more employees cannot discriminate against people with disabilities, according to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“This is good to see,” because it means that employers with 15 or more employees are following the law, she said.

The law cannot make small businesses select disabled candidates, said Meera Adya, co-author of the study and director of research at the Burton Blatt Institute at SU.

The fictitious resumes and cover letters, which were sent to 6,016 companies in the accounting sector and were made all male to control for gender disparity.

In the cover letters, the fictitious individual interested in the job would discuss their disability. For these cover letters, the two disabilities the researchers referred to were Asperger’s Syndrome and spinal cord injury. The fictitious cover letters of the disabled applicants stated that they volunteered in charities aimed toward the aforementioned disabilities. Those who were not disabled simply mentioned volunteering for a different type of charity not affiliated with a disability.

This study is just the beginning of further research into employer bias, said Rutgers researcher Mason Ameri.

“We could look further into employer behavior and find out how they come to these decisions when considering applicants,” he said. “There are interviews that can be conducted with employers to better understand how they pick their candidates, how they compare one candidate to another. This can help make the research more credible.”

Researcher Douglas Kruse of Rutgers University said the bigger purpose of the study has to do with policy.

“Matters of diversity should be better addressed in the political climate,” Kruse said. “Further studies can help us understand how employers think. That can really affect policy and can help construct better, more effective policy to address these issues.”

Researchers said future studies on employment discrimination could include studies on disabled vs. non-disabled applicants in low-skill jobs, female applicants and different industries.

Only 34 percent of working-age people with disabilities were employed in 2013, as opposed to 74 percent without disabilities, according to the study.

The study also referenced the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which stated that in 2015, the unemployment rate of people with disabilities is 12.5 percent as opposed to 5.9 percent for non-disabled people. This indicates “that their low employment is not simply due to lack of interest in finding a job,” according to the study.

Adya said she hopes the study will give everyone a clearer sense of discrimination against disabled job applicants, despite the laws that are in place. She added that there is a potential to be influenced by perceptions of disabled people, and that trained hiring managers may still discriminate without realizing it.

“This study shows it is a real phenomenon, and we need to have a discussion and prevent this type of discrimination from happening,” Adya said.

Published on November 11, 2015 at 9:54 pm

Contact Amanda: alsilves@syr.edu