Scientists who suffer from a disability that occurred early in their life earn around $14,000 less per year than their colleagues. That’s according to an analysis of the money earned by more than 80,000 US doctoral graduates in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) subjects. Academics with a disability that developed later in life do not, however, experience a salary penalty, the study finds (Nature Human Behaviour 10.1038/s41562-023-01745-z).
People with disabilities have long been known to be under-represented in STEM and senior academic positions. But to address our lack of knowledge about the pay disparities they face, Bonnielin Swenor, director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center in Baltimore, and colleagues examined data from the 2019 Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR). It includes information on 80,882 US PhD graduates, who formed a subset of the 1.15 million or so people who got research doctorates between 1973 and 2017.
According to the team, around 700,000 people who received PhDs in the US between 1973 and 2017 are still working in STEM. This total includes about 20,000 people who reported disabilities from early in life (before the age of 25) and around 37,000 individuals who first experienced a disability later in life (aged 25 or above). Of the 700,000 doctoral graduates employed in STEM, around 30% (220,000) are estimated to work at academic institutions.
When the authors compared individuals from the SDR dataset with those with similar socioeconomic, degree and job-related characteristics, they found that doctorate recipients working in STEM with a disability that was first experienced early in life earn $10,580 less per year than their non-disabled peers. But if they work in an academic institution, they earn on average $14,360 less than colleagues without disabilities. The benefits of making physics a more accessible discipline
Doctorate recipients with disabilities were also found to be under-represented among professors and tenured academics as well as deans and presidents in academic institutions. No salary differences were found between doctorate recipients with late disabilities and without disabilities in the overall STEM workforce, or among STEM workers in academia.
The researchers say that the disparity between the two groups could be driven by the unique challenges and structural barriers those with early disabilities face when entering the workforce and accessing equal pay and career advancement opportunities. They caution, however, that older workers with disabilities also face pressures such as having to retire early because working conditions fail to accommodate them.
Diverse perspective
“Ableism is pervasive and unchecked across much of STEM,” Swenor told Physics World. “These biased views create inequities for disabled scientists across the STEM pathway, and pay gaps are just one example.”
The researchers argue that structural transformations are required to create institutional environments that foster inclusion and address these disparities. “Our results underscore that STEM professionals face many barriers,” Swenor says. “Focusing on accessibility and universal design in STEM is critical for including more disabled scientists, but we cannot ignore the myriad of other biases and barriers that squeeze researchers with disabilities out of the workforce – and inequities in salary is one of them.”
Swenor adds that diverse perspectives are required to drive scientific discovery and innovation, and to help us face challenges like climate change and public health emergencies. “By excluding STEM professionals with disabilities, we are all losing out and missing opportunities to advance science, making it imperative to address the barriers that people with disabilities in STEM fields face,” she adds.
Meanwhile, a separate study from the Royal Society of Chemistry has found that only 5.5% of UK academic staff working in the chemical sciences are disabled compared with 23% of the working population. The study also revealed that disabled chemists are less likely to hold senior positions or be in roles with supervisory responsibilities as compared with chemists without disabilities. The report provides several recommendations to reverse the trend including improving digital accessibility, hosting more inclusive events and ring-fencing funding.
