Many thousands of Kiwi workers are now essentially working for free for the rest of the year because of an alarming pay gap.

Research from the United Kingdom shows disabled employees earn £3458 less than their disabled counterparts. Based on a 35-hour week, that means they are now so far behind their non-disabled colleagues that they are practically working for nothing.

It’s similar in New Zealand where figures from StatsNZ show the gap is, on average, $114 a week, or just under $6000 over a year.

Given that the 2013 NZ Disability Survey revealed 1.1 million New Zealanders were classified as disabled, that means many thousands of workers are being potentially under-paid.

The research, from leading British charity Leonard Cheshire, also highlighted the impact of the pandemic on disabled people, and growing concerns over unemployment in that community.

Just 46.4 per cent of British disabled 18–24-year-olds are employed, compared with 71 per cent of their non-disabled counterparts.

Sadly, again, it’s a similar picture in New Zealand, where StatsNZ figures released earlier this year show just 42.5 per cent of working-age disabled people are employed.

Jonathan Mosen, chief executive of Workbridge, a New Zealand organisation that helps place disabled people and others facing various barriers into employment, has called it a “moral and fiscal failure”.

Mosen believed the pay gap and the alarming unemployment rate among the disability community, which he labelled a “crisis”, were both a result of a lack of ‘disability confidence’ within businesses.

That could be addressed, in part, through a new Workbridge initiative, Just Say Yes, which offers advice, training and support for both employers and employees on disability and health issues in the workplace.

He said plenty of employers had had success when taking on Workbridge jobseekers, but too many remained unemployed, despite being work-ready.

Just Say Yes and immediate action could help address the issue.

“The vast majority of businesses don’t mean to exclude people, but they need honest answers to questions and concerns,” he said.

“Just Say Yes offers practical, business-friendly advice to ensure businesses get great advice, and disabled people and those with a health condition or injury have more opportunity.”

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