Abstract
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides civil rights protections to persons with disabilities, but the debate that preceded passage of the Act was not based on empirical estimates that could be used to measure its performance. This article estimates the extent of wage discrimination against men with disabilities in 1990, providing a reference that can be used to evaluate the impact of the ADA. The results show large productivity-standardized wage differentials between disabled and nondisabled men that are weakly correlated with the strength of prejudice against different impairments. Physical limitations explain part, but not all, of the wage differentials. The results also show that low employment rates are a more serious problem than wage discrimination for workers with disabilities. provide civil rights protections to persons with disabilities. The Act's supporters promised that it would increase the employment and wages of persons with disabilities and reduce their dependency on public programs. The promises were not based on empirical estimates of discrimination, and there is no empirical base against which to compare the promises to the performance of the ADA. This article estimates the extent of wage discrimination against men with disabilities in 1990, providing a reference that can be used to evaluate the impact of the Act. The ADA does not grant a right to employment to all persons with disabilities. It requires that persons with disabilities be able to perform the jobs they seek, subject to reasonable accommodations by employers. This article, therefore, considers men who are able to work even though their health limits the amount or kind of work they can perform. The ADA's provisions assume that low wages and low employment rates for persons with disabilities are the result of discrimination caused by prejudice. Prejudice against persons with disabilities is well documented, but so are the limiting effects of physical impairments on workplace productivity (Hahn 1987; Margolis and Shapiro 1987; Clogston 1990). The core of the debate concerning the value of the ADA is whether the poor labor market outcomes of persons with disabilities are the result of discrimination or the limiting effects of health con
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