In 2019, Canadians with disabilities earned an average annual income of $43,400, substantially lower than people without disabilities ($55,200), a pay gap of 21.4 per cent, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.
It found a 24.3 per cent pay gap between men with disabilities (average annual earnings of $48,700) and men without disabilities ($64,300). By comparison, the pay gap between women with disabilities ($38,900) and women without disabilities ($45,100) was 13.7 per cent.
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Canadians with cognitive disabilities earned less than half (46.4 per cent) of those without disabilities in 2019. There were also pay gaps for people with mental health-related disabilities (31 per cent), physical disabilities (20.7 per cent) and sensory disabilities (12.3 per cent).
The report also found people with disabilities (76.9 per cent) were less likely to work full time than people without disabilities (84.5 per cent). Among workers with full-time employment, people with disabilities earned $11,200 less annually than those without disabilities, a pay gap of 16.6 per cent.
Some of the top employment barriers cited for people with disabilities were inaccessible technology, lack of materials in alternate formats, physically inaccessible spaces and discriminatory attitudes towards people with disabilities.
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