Today’s the day, friends. Today marks the last day that the average working disabled person, will get paid this year, even if they work until the end of the year, due to the enormous pay gap experienced by disabled workers, compared to non disabled workers of the same skill level.
Today marks 'Disability Pay Gap Day' in the UK, exposing a shocking reality: disabled workers earn nearly £67 less per week than their non-disabled counterparts of the same skill level. To put it in perspective, that's more than the average household's weekly food bill of £62.20.
This leads to a substantial annual pay gap of £3,460 for those working a 35-hour week, essentially meaning that disabled people work for free for the last 47 days of the year; our pay stops today.
Did you know:
👉🏽 Disabled women face a 30% larger pay gap.
👉🏽 1 in 10 disabled workers from the global majority are unemployed, compared to nearly 1 in 40 for white non-disabled workers.
👉🏽 The disability pay gap persists throughout most workers' careers.
These statistics paint a grim picture of economic inequality, exclusion, and hardship faced by disabled people in the UK. It's not just about numbers; it's about lives affected, opportunities denied, and a systemic issue that demands urgent attention and rectification. In light of these disparities, it's time for action. Let's call on the government to address the discrimination faced by disabled workers in the job market and make disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting mandatory.
This impacts Carers too…
When we look at disabled workers we also need to look at the pay gap between employed carer & a carer given the status “unpaid”, there’s a massive pay gap. In fact, there’s no pay, just an allowance (or no allowance for some). Leaving many forced into poverty
A paid carer doing min 35 hrs a wk would receive £364.70. That’s 10.42 p/hr
Those carers given status unpaid (& all admin, advocacy etc.) receive £76.75. That’s £2.19 p/hr
Only, they don’t just do 35 hrs a week they often do 90 plus hrs a week. That’s 85 p/hr.
Why is this ok? It's not ok and it's unlawful. The government have never been able to justify this form of modern slavery.
Carers also don’t receive sick or holiday pay. It’s disgusting really, the amount of work they do to care for those they love. This love is the factor why they won’t even consider paying them even their minimum value, because gov know carers won’t stop caring for the ones they love the most. It’s another way to take advantage of those vulnerable.
People with disabilities on average have both greater expenses and lower pay.
Time to get rid of the #DisabilityPayGap
Why are disabled people viewed as lesser worthy of human rights to equal pay?
If you wouldn’t consider paying a non disabled person less, and only paying them in exposure or good reviews, then why disabled people the ableism is so ingrained into society that we automatically assume a disabled person is worth less because they disabled and also that the work they do is therefore less valuable. Yes the reality is that we are disabled and we need accommodations, but the reality is also that we deserve equal right and accessibility to human rights for survival and pay, as a baseline, we deserve the opportunities to thrive like non disabled people do, except disabled people are never given the opportunity to thrive because access never empnables us to, and the disability pay gap, the lack of working access and adjustments and public attitudes and the hidden disability pay tax impacting carers and disabled people all point to the same issue. If society doesn’t have to change why would they? They simply don’t care and it costs too much so until we humanise disabled people and our rights on a national social level, no one will care to change.
The changes are small but all build up a picture of more access and financial freedom and prosperity in the future , more representation in media, positive and effective portrayals from disabled people, disabled people not being shrouded in toxic positivity and stigma, yet there’s only so many battles we can fight every day and for now we have to focus on our human rights, before our country slips even faster into ruin. For now, we must focus on what we can do as indicivudals to challenge stigma and write to mps and advocate for change in a safe way for us in our local area.
I understand the complications of it, I do. There is a reason I can not work traditionally, because not only is it inaccessible but the work I did manage to do at huge expense of my health wellbeing and sanity, would also not be good enough because I am disabled. There’s many nuances. I am the best on paper at things but in reality I shutdown far too frequently and too severely to safely or effectively work, yet this does not mean my worth is less. It does mean that jobs simply wouldn’t hire me though. There’s many reasons why I cannot work in the traditional manner, mostly because it wouldn’t be safe and no business would hire someone who shuts down multiple times a week and cannot work without fainting or having a seizure, and needs to have timeout every thirty minutes and also the flexibility to cancel and not turn up and leave early, while the work itself needing someone to role model with mr because I cannot process information. Why would somewhere hire a disabled person like me when it is cheaper to hire the person helping me to do the job.
So for me, volunteering with all the flexibility and adaptations and accessibility and understanding that entails enabled me to work in a way that worked for me. And I thrived.
As a disabled and autistic committed volunteer, who volunteered on multiple projects for many years - I understand the value of experience and gaining access into a career. Not at the expense of mine and others survival and human rights though.
However as an adult - disabled or not - I also understand the need to be paid a decent liveable wage for my skills, to avoid the poverty trapeze line I’m constantly walking across.
I deserve pay, just like everyone else. The fact I am unable to work, is not only an innocence and no saying of motivations but also a great teller of the society we live in that thinks me unworthy, simply because I am disabled. My peers and I deserve better, and those of us ho can work deserve to bbe paid our worth and at the very last we deserve to be paid the same as non disabled people doing the same job.
As a motivational speaker and autism understanding trainer I am My own boss and I set my own fees- I know my worth is far more than I charge, but I like to stay true to my roots and be accessible but the truth is that - I shouldn’t be. I should feel worthy enough to just change people what I’m worth because my disability doesn’t make my work any less meaningful or worthy.
Non disabled people would charge an extra digit to what I do - and people would gladly pay because if you want skills and experience you have to pay their worth! Yet, when you’re autistic and disabled suddenly everything is “well hey, you’ll get loads of exposure!” “The fees not big but it’s better than nothing right?”
No, it’s not better than nothing- because if I’m working I should be paid my worth and my worth doesn’t diminish because I’m disabled.
I’m not a tickbox exercise people get to choose to say they’re inclusive and then Pay less.
Then, there is the hidden disability tax to consider, while also jumping through hoops to be worthy of human rights to money food and shelter, among the disability pay gap and the severe lack of access or reasonable adjustments in the working world to even empower most disabled people to even work. So yes, it’s expensive being disabled and it’s also not a choice that many disabled people cannot work however even those of us who can work have to fight a system that gate keeps access and also pays below our worth as human beings simply because we are disabled.
Disabled tax is a reality, and pip as. Benefit is available for the additional costs of being disabled and is not an out of work benefit. PiP is notoriously difficult to access.
Being disabled is expensive, and we deserve better.
executive dysfunction is expensive-It costs a lot of money being neurodivergent, especially in the ADHD type.
That might sound ridiculous but it is so true. It can be financially debilitating and the worst part is, it looks so avoidable to others that there is so much shame, misunderstanding and stigma attached to it.
Then you try to explain the reasons why, and you get gaslighted with ‘stop making excuses and try harder-the difficulty is in your head. You’re an adult now- you can do better. JUST DO IT”.
From their perspective-
🌟Why spend so much on lunches out, on shopping for just a few days at a time, or on take away?
🌟Why didn't you take those clothes back, they don't even fit you?
🌟That device that doesn’t work you could get your money back? Why not do it?!
🌟Why didn't you deal with this when it wasn't a big deal?
🌟You could have ordered those months ago? Why are you paying extra for special delivery to have them arrive in time?
🌟why did you buy the expensive version if the cheaper one is just as good? You don’t even care about brand names, so why buy them?!
🌟you’re entitled to so much in free passes and discounts on admissions or things you need etc, why not do it?
🌟Why didn’t you just cancel the subscription instead of racking up this enormous bill for something that you knew you only needed to use once?!
🌟You booked this event conference months ago, the hotel would have been £150 if you booked it then but you didn’t and you waited and now it’s going to cost you &560 for a 1 night stay.
🌟All you needed to do was call and let them know you weren't coming-you could have avoided the fee?
🌟Late fees? Why an earth did you not just take the books back to the library-you have had all of this free time?!
🌟If you just plan out your meals, you can shop cheaply you know!
The reality is that I can’t process information to make the connection to establish HOW to do even start to initiate any of these sort of tasks! Lists and schedules don’t help-because I can’t process the words or numbers to establish meaning.
Seeing does not equal understanding- hearing does not equal understanding. If you’re too overwhelmed all of the time to make connections because your executive function has shutdown then believe me when I say that, even routines, become too much data to process and make sense of!
So often I felt lost as a child because I couldn’t process anything-ever-what lesson I was in at school, despite routines. If you’re too overwhelmed, your brain protects you by trying to minimise what you have to process. Things that aren’t vital to survival just do not get processed or ‘forgotten’. Executive dysfunction could be seen as a natural defence mechanism to a lived reality that deals with overwhelmingly more stimuli than neurotypical counterparts.
Then something else came up- the hidden disability tax that disabled people have to spend their money on- often just to survive and access their health and wellbeing existing in this inaccessible ableist discriminatory world. When you tell disabled people that their medication is "only" £9. Or that a blue badge costs "only" £10. Or that new hearing aids are "only" £2500. You're forgetting that abled people don't have to buy this shit.
Make it free. This past year I've spent thousands on wheelchairs, mobility aids, hearing aids and any other thing you can think of so I can function. Yet I can't see a therapist, or an OT or a rhuematologist or a physio because "it costs too much". I'm disabled, my quality of life should be worth every penny
Examples for me:
shower chair, handheld shower head, earplugs, noise-cancelling headphones, ear defenders, w weighted blankets, medications, vitamins, special shoes, subscriptions, safety medical packs, special hospital ware, sunglasses... having multiples of personal care items around my home.
For My disability and diseases when I was at my worse I spend over £600 a month just to survive but that is never on insurance or prescription! My vitamins I am deficient in alone cost £150 a month.
Food that fits my dietary restrictions is more expensive and less likely to be in pantries. I need to pay extra for food that can be left out of fridges because my functioning cannot process dates of use by. When I can’t even process my own name or feed myself how am I supposed to process dates and then organise and function to create ifeendients and food p. Yes ingredient s would be cheaper but I can’t access food like that. I can’t chop food without fainting or injuring myself and so the extra expensive pre chopped foods are my only options. Mostly I can only eat ready meals which are so expensive per meal. It’s not a choice. It’s not a laziness. It’s a necessity to survive because I cannot always access a carer. I was often bed bound and unable to move. I needed food I can eat cold from the packet, which is also fitting my dietary needs which is often over five pounds a meal. That’s incredibly expensive. I also pay for disability based things like wheelchair, walking aids, radar keys, medication, accessible clothing/ footwear with none of the fashion, sensory friendly stuff. heating pad, mobility aids, otc meds/supplements, allergy-friendly hygiene products, tray table so I can work in bed, various cushions, transport fo medical appointment, Stim toys, which I often use instead of my big stims, because big stims make many neurotypical people uncomfortable. ear plugs, sunglasses, black out curtains, compression items. My painnwish list is over £900 and a lot of the stuff would need replacing every few years. This is stuff non disabled people do not even consider paying for. They get the luxury of not only existing chronic pain free and without disability but also spending and saving their money how they choose and not how they need because they have the capability and the basic income to adhere to their basic human rights. And because they can, why can’t others right? It’s a gross generalisation and over simplification.
Disabled people are twice more likely to fall out of work than non disabled people. The average disabled house hold face up to £950 additional coatings a month, simply to survive. The cost of living crisis is hitting everyone but especially disabled people who not only cannot work, but also can work, because the pay gap is so horrendous. Also no one talks about how as a Disabled person you could find the one rare job opportunity, come off benefits for a few months, only to be fired or be forced to quit, because your job isn’t accessible to allow you to work, and then have your benefits removed or denied because a few months ago you could work, as if it were the disabled persons fault their job was too inaccessible to enable them to continue working.
B
Attitudes and lack of access and reasonable adjustments in the workplace is preventing disabled people who want to and can work from being able to do so. Lack of understanding and stigma and fear mongering stop staff and bosses from proving effective care and access, ultimately leading to a self fulfilling prophecy where the disabled person is expected to fail because the work place isn’t suitable to enable them to thrive.
they say they support my disability, but they think I could do more to get better. They support my disability, but they’re annoyed that I’m still sick. they support my disability, but they think I talk about it too much.
if your support for disabled people is conditional, it’s not support-it’s ableism.
Support for disabled people should never be conditional. Our worth and our human rights is not conditional on how much help we needs or how much we inspire someone. We are disabled and we are human, and we deserve the same rights, with equity and equality, as every other human being, tailored to what makes us as human thrive, just like every other human.
It’s high time we close the disability pay gap.
It’s time we challenge the stigma surrounded disability and pay and worth, and challenge the misconceptions surrounding the disability tax, and what we are allowed to spend our money on, aligning to our equity, self authority and human rights.
Acceptance to a better Britain
We must accept that we cannot force ourselves to get better, & that it’s not within our control to cure an illness or disability, no matter what the sirens sing to brainwash the masses that we deserve less than humane survival?!
We need people to stop implying that we could only get better if we tried. It does not mean we are not also motivated to improve and it doesn’t mean we are not trying everything within our power to better-we just simply can’t magic ourselves better through good intentions alone-it’s not a mental /mind over matter, issue.
Vouchers was never about helping us. It’s about finding a reason to plausibly deny the reasons for our deaths and drum up division and hatred so that later, they can strip the vulnerable of more rights and not risk such a public upheaval because by then everyone will have been brainwashed to believe our rights were not necessary anyway.
How to help:
🧚🏻♀️ next time there's vote for politics whether local or national - make sure, you make Your vote count! Vote wisely to get any faschist or eugenics train off the governing track by removing the those from political power that do not align with your values; how you choose to do so, is up to you.
🧚🏻♀️advocate, and if it is safe to share stories - but remember - just because the world seems cursed by sirens who stir up hate or information never means you should feel like you HAVE to justify what you spend your money or PIP on or why you can’t work or how your disabled or sick.
🧚🏻♀️Listen to our needs or look out for the signs that we need help or restbite- then provide us with restbite with no judgement or pressure.
🧚🏻♀️remember even quiet advocates are still advocating as loudly as they can safely manage at the time - even you. Avoid making someone who is close to shutdown or meltdown simply “carry on” in that situation if they have expressed discomfort. Take them away & allow them to calm down so they can regain lost mental, emotional & physical capability’s. Remember that, advocacy is not ableist and just because someone does not advocate for big issues like you’d expect does not mean they don’t care or have not prioritised it. Sometimes survival is prioritised over global issues or big issues in life.
🧚🏻♀️Likewise- respect that we should never judge what another person spends their money or PIP on. Let’s be safe people, and not shame or judge. We don’t know what’s best for them, especially if they’re strangers. We don’t know what spending money would best help them. We must never judge, or make them feel like they’re ’bad’ for needing to spend money the way they do.
🧚🏻♀️campaigns, and signing of relevant helpful petitions on change.uk . I’m still searching for some but I’ve fainted 7 times since I started write this and need to stop before I injure myself so can’t research any more! Sorry!
🧚🏻♀️don’t apologise for being disabled like I just did. There’s nothing Wrong with you, your good intentions or potential to
Try your best - it’s not your fault other people fall foul of a sirens spells and don’t recognise what your best actually looks like.
Please, don’t believe your inner voice or the voice of capitalism. You’re worth so much even if the world doesn’t believe it. You don’t have to contribute to society in a ‘meaningful way’ to be worthy. You’re not a burden for existing-especially in a world that provides so little of the baseline of support necessary to empower you.
You’re worthy. You are valid. You are awesome. You are NOT a burden.
Disabled people being blamed for our own poverty, is not our faults or our failure… it’s is the failure of society to empower us. We are not the burden, society is. Pay gap or not, the real gap that is abundantly clear in these discussion, is the gap between humanity and stigma, and for us as disabled people and people fighting in our own way for rights, it never wavers. This is because we know our worth and we will fight for it. When we look back at history books at this chapter of our live, we will be on the right side of history, we will be spoken about in awe, in whispers worthy of that of legends for our never ending resilience in a world where we should never be forced to be so resilient. Our power seeps from us, and our ability to make change unites in our ability to listen to each others stories and forge change locally, until together, we make society see our worth too. That’s how change is made, a small idea, followed by a lot of trust and powerful declarations of resilience.
we will be the hero’s in the history books, and for that, we should celebrate. We are doing our best, and disabled or not, we are worthy and we are wondrous beings, worthy of celebration too. Just like non disabled people.
Take care,
Peace x
🧚🏻♀️