Just a Little Respect: Differences in Job Satisfaction Among Individuals With and Without Disabilities

Objective While scholars have documented high unemployment rates of individuals with disabilities, few studies address how workers with disabilities feel about their jobs. This study uses nationally representative data to explore the relationship between disability and job satisfaction; and examines how differences in job satisfaction between workers with and without disabilities may reflect educational attainment and perceived workplace respect. Methods Data come from the 2006 U.S. General Social Survey (N = 1,613). I estimated a series of ordinal logit regression models, controlling for gender, age, and race. Results Controlling for demographic and workplace characteristics, workers with disabilities had 49 percent lower odds of reporting high job satisfaction than their nondisabled counterparts. Differences in workplace respect accounted for 38 percent of this difference. Conclusion Given these results, one policy recommendation would be to implement disability awareness training for all employees, which may increase the amount of respect experienced by disabled workers.