Labor Market Outcomes of Persons with Mental Disorders

Abstract

We present nationally representative estimates of unexplained employment and wage differentials between nondisabled persons and persons with mental disorders, a disabled group subject to exceptionally strong stigma. Estimates are provided for persons with mental disorders overall, and for subgroups of mood, anxiety, adjustment, and psychotic disorders. The results reveal distinctly different patterns of outcomes across subgroups, consistent with a severity gradient such that persons with adjustment disorders experience the most favorable outcomes, while persons with psychotic disorders experience the least favorable.

Wage subsidies and hiring chances for the disabled: some causal evidence

“…First, Datta Gupta and Larsen [10] evaluated the Danish Flexjob scheme, which entitles employers to a 1 In addition, hourly wages and training opportunities are also lower among disabled employees [3,9,13,37,38]. 2 Within the classical competitive framework in which wages and employment are formed by a confrontation of labour supply and labour demand, wage subsidies will shift out the labour demand curve for the targeted workers.…”

“…Two applications for male graduates, identical except that one reveals a disability, are sent out to 768 vacancies in the Flemish labour market. 3 In addition, we randomise over pairs in which the disabled candidate also mentions entitlement to a wage subsidy, the Flemish Supporting Subsidy, amounting to between 20% and 40% of the total wage cost, and pairs in which the disabled candidate does not. Monitoring the subsequent call-back enables us to identify heterogeneity in the unequal treatment of disabled and non-disabled applicants by wage subsidy entitlement disclosure.…”

Job loss discrimination and former substance use disorders

“…Persons with mental disorders experience notably poorer outcomes in the labor market than non-disabled persons (18% lower employment rate, 8% lower wage rate). Twenty percent of the employment gap, and 30 percent of the wage gap, is unexplained by functional limitations and other productivity-related variables and potentially attributed to stigma-related discrimination by employers (Baldwin and Marcus, 2007). …”

“…Oaxaca, 1973; Reimers, 1983; Cotton, 1988). A series of studies has applied the methods to study discrimination against persons with disabilities, in general, and persons with mental disorders, in particular (Baldwin and Johnson, 1994; 1995; 1996; 2000; Baldwin and Marcus, 2007). Substance use disorders are known to elicit strong stigma so a logical next step is to focus a discrimination study on persons with substance use disorders.…”

Employees� Perspectives on the Facilitators and Barriers to Engaging With Digital Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

“…Research supports this perspective with evidence that the stigma associated with mental ill health can result in lower wages [50], under-employment and precarious employment [51]. However, although participants did not necessarily want their employer to know that they were accessing the intervention, they did think that it was important for organisations and line managers to circulate information about the intervention and to encourage its use.…”