The Influence of Social Capital and Social Role on Starting Wage for People With and Without Disabilities

Abstract

People with disabilities are arguably the most economically marginalized population in America. Employment does not address the problem unless wages reach adequate levels, suggesting the need for better understanding of factors influencing compensation in employment. The purpose of this study is to replicate previous findings on social capital and starting wage while also considering the influence of social role for people with and without disabilities. The responses of university health students to hypothetical hiring scenarios were analyzed using a three-way mixed ANOVA. Results support and extend prior research suggesting that social capital and social role have a positive influence on starting wage for both people with and without disabilities. Scenarios depicting social capital and positive social role resulted in an increase in hourly wage of more than US$1,500.00 per year than those with low levels of social capital and a negative social role. A similar but weaker relationship between pay and social capital existed when there was one degree of separation (i.e., the friend of a friend) between employer and new employee. Social role, along with social capital, is an important factor in starting wage decisions. Implications for the job search are provided.

Features of the assessment of factors influencing productivity

“…Figure 2 shows that factors determining wage are divided into internal and external. The group of internal factors consists of the factors of human capital (describing the personality, psychological condition, health and marital status), the characteristic of the employee (describing the persona s an employee -his/her skills, competence and professional qualification) and the characteristic of the employee and employer (describing both the enterprise and the job position and the employer's ability to pay the fixed wage) (Hossain et al, 2015;Litwin, 2015;Šilingienė et al, 2015;Bargain & Peichl, 2016;Pytliková, Filipová, Balcar, & Gottvald, 2016;Bhattarai, 2017;Phillips, Stauser, Ritter, Notaro, & Jones, 2018). The level of wage is determined by the "personal qualities of the employee, their education and qualification, which means that there are differences between a qualified and unskilled employee".…”

“…The characteristics of employee: skills, competence, qualification, experience, the value of employee. (Hossain et al, 2015;Litwin, 2015;Šilingienė et al, 2015;Pytliková et al, 2016;Bhattarai, 2017;Phillips et al, 2018) Human capital factors: age, gender, education, status, marital status,family composition, health and appearance characteristics. (Hossain et al, 2015;Bargain & Peichl, 2016;Pytliková et al, 2016) Social factors: demographic changes, immigrants (their number and skills/qualification).…”

Disability Inclusion in Corporate Supplier Diversity Initiatives

“…Entrepreneurs with disabilities report that they face pervasive ableism, are often required to overcome low expectations, have limited access to traditional financing channels and to accessible technologies, and feel excluded from business networking opportunities [ 15 , 26 ]. People with disabilities have lower levels of social capital, which affects access to financial capital, employment outcomes, and starting wages [ 28 , 29 ], and health [ 30 ]. Extant research indicates that high quality entrepreneurship programs can effectively help entrepreneurs with disabilities increase their self-efficacy and overcome traditional barriers [ 31 ].…”