People with disabilities earn 30% less and have lower employment rates, says IBGE

New data from the 2022 Census, released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) this Friday (18), reveal a scenario of inequality in the Brazilian job market for people with disabilities. The study points out that less than a third of this group is employed and that their earnings are significantly lower than those of workers without disabilities.

Inequality in employment and income

The employment rate among people with disabilities was 29% in 2022, which means that about three in ten working-age people with disabilities were employed. In contrast, among people without disabilities, the rate reached 55.8%. This total difference in the employment rate was 26.8 percentage points.

The inequality is directly reflected in their pockets. The average income of a worker with disabilities was R$ 2,053 in 2022, about 30% lower than that recorded among people without disabilities, which was R$ 2,890. IBGE researcher João Hallak Neto explains that, in addition to earning less within the same fields, people with disabilities were more concentrated in sectors with lower pay.

Brazil had 14.407 million people with disabilities, representing 7.3% of the population aged 2 years or older in 2022.

Sectors of activity and remuneration

People with disabilities were more concentrated in lower-paying activities, such as domestic services, agriculture and livestock, and accommodation and food services. In all economic activity groups analyzed, people with disabilities earned less than people without disabilities.

Among the sectors analyzed, public administration, education, health, and social services presented the highest earnings. In this area, people with disabilities received, on average, R$ 3,223, equivalent to 77.8% of the average income of workers without disabilities, which was R$ 4,146.

The impact on families

Inequality in the job market affects the composition of family income. In households with at least one person with disabilities, labor income corresponded to 55.7% of total average earnings. The other 44.3% came from other sources. In homes without people with disabilities, labor represented 78.4% of the income, while 21.6% came from other sources.

When considering total family income, households where people with disabilities live had an average income of R$ 3,626 per month. This amount is equivalent to 76.4% of the budget of families without people with disabilities, which reached R$ 4,748 in the same period.

Differences by type of disability

The employment rate varied according to the type and intensity of the difficulty. The lowest rate, 12.9%, was recorded among people with difficulties associated with some limitation in mental functions. People with difficulties walking or climbing stairs (17.2%) and picking up small objects (17.7%) also presented rates below the average. Among those with profound disabilities, the share of workers drops to 21.2%, while in the group with severe disabilities the rate is 30.5%.

The highest employment percentage among the analyzed groups was registered among people with difficulty seeing, at 35.9%. Among those with difficulty hearing, the rate was 27.5%. The group with difficulty seeing was the largest in the country, with 7.948 million people.

Gender and race breakdowns

The Census also pointed out differences in the employment rate by sex and color or race. Women with disabilities had lower employment rates (24.4%) compared to men with disabilities (35.4%). Among women with disabilities, Black or brown women had a higher proportion of employment (25.6%) than white women (22.7%).

The behavior repeated among men with disabilities, with 36.0% of Black or brown men employed, compared to 34.6% of white men. The pattern was different among people without disabilities: in this group, the employment rate was higher among white people.

With information from O GLOBO, InfoMoney.