Pressing issues of disability employment

Russia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; thus, the government started to pay more attention to the issues related to the employment of this category of the population. Labor activity is one of the main ways for an individual to become economically independent and feel confident about the future. At the same time, people with disabilities do not always have an opportunity to work. This is caused by the specifics of their physical needs and by inefficient public policy. Various problems arising in connection with the employment of persons with disabilities, are studied by Russian and foreign authors.

The foreign studies can be grouped in three thematic areas. The first one is the study of legislation on the rights of persons with disabilities. For example, M. Floyd and J. Curtis in their article consider the development of UK social policy concerning to people with disabilities [12]. Social policy pursued by the European Union is the object of the study by W. van Oorschot and B. Hvinden [15]. The development of the Swedish legislation protecting the rights of this group is studied in the work of R. Lindqvist [14]. The second area is represented by scientific works on the standard of living of people with disabilities, their social participation and economic activity, for instance, the work of American authors R. Haveman, K. Holden, B. Wolfe, P. Smith, K. Wilson [13], covering the period from 1982 to 1991. The third area comprises works that consider the effectiveness of measures to promote the employment of persons with disabilities. Such practices as part of social policy are discussed by M.A. Verdugo, A. Jimenez, F.B.J. de Urries [16]. Some problems of providing advisory support to persons with disabilities in promoting their employment are covered in the work of G.A.M. Backenroth [11]. Ed Westerhout analyzes the labor market and the efficiency of the impact of various policies on persons with disabilities [17].

Russian researchers focus their attention mainly on determining the effectiveness of government measures for the employment of persons with disabilities, for assessing economic losses due to disability, for identifying the employment needs of persons with disabilities. These aspects are discussed in the present paper as well.

Russian authors identify the following barriers to employment of people with disabilities [10, pp. 6-7]:

– barriers of the environment (unsuitable infrastructure in the settlements, lack of specially adapted vehicles, failure to establish the uniform accessibility of premises and routes to people with disabilities);

– low professional and qualification status of persons with disabilities;

– flaws in the ways to promote the employment of persons with disabilities;

– absence of external (economic) incentives for employment: wages of persons with disabilities are lower than those of other workers;

– lack of internal (psychological) incentives for employment;

– discrimination of people with disabilities by employers.

It is also noted that difficulties with obtaining an education, negative social attitudes and stereotypes in the attitude toward people with disabilities exert a negative impact on their employment [5, p. 63].

At the same time, the ways to overcome these obstacles must have a legal basis enabling public authorities to influence the functioning of the labor market in order to promote the employment of people with disabilities. Therefore, having considered the existing legislative framework that defines the rights and interests of persons with disabilities, employers and state bodies in this sphere, we can identify critical issues related to the employment of persons with disabilities.

According to Paragraph 3, Article 37 of the RF Constitution, any citizen shall have the right to work in the “labor conditions meeting the safety and hygienic requirements, for labor remuneration without any discrimination whatsoever and not lower than minimum wages and salaries established by the federal law, as well as the right to protection against unemployment”1. However, people with disabilities are among the groups with a high risk of unemployment. According to the World Health Organization, in 2013 the global employment rates in men with disabilities (53%) and women with disabilities (20%) were lower than those in men (65%) and women without disabilities (30%). In the member states

Figure 1. Level of economic activity, employment and unemployment of persons 15-72 years of age with disabilities, 2014

Levelofeconomicactivity              ■ Employmentlevel ■ Unemploymentlevel

Source: Trud i zanyatost’ invalidov [Labor and employment of people with disabilities]. Ofitsial’nyi sait FSGS [Official website of the Federal State Statistica Service]. Available at: (accessed 27.06.2016).

of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the employment rate among people with disabilities (44%) is slightly higher than half of the same indicator among people without disabilities (75%)2.

In the Russian Federation, according to the data for 2015, the unemployment rate among the disabled was 12%. Among persons with disabilities 15 – 72 years of age only 15% showed economic activity and only 12% worked (Fig. 1). But as we know, persons with disabilities remain one of the lower-income groups: according to the calculations for 2015 they had only 0.04% of the total volume of Russians’ incomes.

Measures contained in the federal and regional laws and normative legal acts of municipalities are to change this situation. Article 20 of the Federal Law “On the social protection of people with disabilities in the Russian Federation” envisages a set of measures3 for promoting the employment of persons with disabilities. It includes:

– establishing quotas4 for hiring people with disabilities and the minimum quantity of special workplaces for the disabled in organizations regardless of their organizational-legal forms and forms of ownership;

– reserving workplaces by professions5 that are most suitable for persons with disabilities;

– promoting the creation of additional workplaces (including special) for the employment of persons with disabilities at enterprises, institutions and organizations;

– creating working conditions for the disabled in accordance with individual programs for their rehabilitation and habilitation (as amended by Federal Law 419-FZ of December 01, 2014);

– creating conditions for entrepreneurial activities of disabled persons;

– training of disabled persons in new professions.

Setting quotas for people with disabilities in accordance with the specified federal law is mandatory for all enterprises whose average number of employees exceeds 100 people. The number of quota jobs should be 2–4% of the total number of jobs at the enterprise. The procedure of quota allocation, as set out in Part 2, Article 20 of the law is determined by the bodies of state power of Russian Federation subjects.

In the Vologda Oblast, according to the new version of the oblast law “On employment quotas for people with disabilities” dated 2013, employers operating in the territory of the oblast, with the average number of their employees exceeding 30 people, also have a quota of 2% for employing people with disabilities6.

Setting quotas as a tool to increase the competitiveness of people with disabilities in the labor market remains insufficiently effective. In Russia in 2008–2014, an adverse trend was observed: the number of disabled people who got a job within the quota decreased 2.3-fold. At that, a sharp decline in the indicator took place in 2009 compared to 2008, which may be associated with a reduction in the supply of labor force due to the fact that a significant proportion of unemployed disabled people were employed in the previous period (Fig. 2).

At the same time, the decrease of this indicator could be affected by other reasons. Among them, researchers note, for example, the imperfection and inconsistency of the current legislation.

According to the data of a study carried out by JSC All-Russian Center of Living Standards [3, p. 62], as of 2009 all regions of the Northwestern Federal District (NWFD) adopted normative-legal acts establishing a quota for employing persons with disabilities: in 5 out of 10 subjects it amounted to 3% of the average number of employees. In the Vologda Oblast the minimum quota was 2%, in the Kaliningrad Oblast – 4%. In addition to setting employment quotas, the regions of the Northwestern Federal District provide for career guidance and psychological support – the measures of assistance to employment of disabled people. Analyzing the overall system of regional legislation in protecting the right of persons with disabilities to work, researchers identify a number of drawbacks in it [3]:

– some regions do not have their own laws that would establish a quota for the employment of persons with disabilities;

– some regions do not have a uniform procedure for setting quotas and a legally binding procedure for the provision of specialized jobs (these procedures are established in the legislation of the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk oblasts only);

Figure 2. Number of people with disabilities employed within the quota, persons

Source: Polozhenie invalidov [Situation of persons with disabilities]. Ofits. sait FSGS [Official website of the Federal State Statistics Service]. Available at: disabilities/ (accessed 26.06.2016).

– there is no procedure for exercising control and supervision over the observance of the legislation in the field of registration of people with disabilities as the unemployed;

– there are no economic incentives for employers to establish and maintain specialized jobs for the disabled.

Another measure aimed to increase the participation of persons with disabilities in economic life consists in reserving the jobs in the professions, recommended for the employment of people with disabilities. The list of professions is contained in the Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated August 04, 2014 No. 515 “On the approval of methodological recommendations on the list of recommended types of employment and professional activity for persons with disabilities on the basis of the type of disability and limitations of their activity”7. The procedure for reserving jobs for persons with disabilities is determined in the regional legislation. For example, in 2015, Perm Krai adopted a resolution “On the approval of procedure for the formation of personnel reserve of disabled persons and reservation of jobs in occupations that are most suitable for employment of disabled people”8. In the same year, the Kostroma Oblast adopted a resolution “On the procedure for reserving jobs in professions that are most suitable for the employment of people with disabilities”9. In Stavropol Krai, the procedure for reserving the jobs is determined by the order of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Stavropol Krai dated October 16, 2015 No. 403 “On the approval of the procedure for conducting special activities to provide persons with disabilities residing on the territory of Stavropol Krai with guarantees of employment”10.

Figure 3. Presence of the specialty and its compliance with the work performed by people with disabilities 15–65 years of age in 2011 and 2014, in %

□ Job fully corresponds to the specialty obtained

О Job is close to the specialty obtained

□ Job does not correspond to the specialty obtained

Source: Polozhenie invalidov [Situation of persons with disabilities]. Ofits. sait FSGS [Official website of the Federal State Statistics Service]. Available at: disabilities/ (accessed 26.06.2016).

It should be noted that currently the issue concerning professional training and retraining of people with disabilities becomes especially important. According to the data for 2011 and 2014, the share of the disabled who have vocational education was 69% in the total number of employed disabled people. Among disabled people with vocational education who live in urban areas 39% work within their obtained specialty, and among those who live in rural areas – 36%. Regardless of area of residence, there are more employed disabled persons with

Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Stavropol Krai dated October 16, 2015 No. 403]. Ofitsial’nyi sait kompanii «Konsul’tantPlyus» [Official website of “ConsultantPlus”]. Available at: cgi?req=doc;base=RLAW077;n=92360;dst=100033/ (accessed 28.06.2016).

vocational education whose job does not correspond to the specialty they got. A similar pattern was observed in 2011 (Fig. 3) .

The fact that the nature of work does no correspond to the specialty obtained can result from the lack of workplaces in the professions, recommended for people with disabilities. Professional retraining and advanced training system can help solve this problem. Among the disabled, who worked outside their profession in 2011, 29% have attended special advanced training and retraining courses by 201411. Minor coverage with retraining services may be due, on the one hand, to the lack of interest on the part of disabled people, and on the other hand, due to the agreement of employers to hire people whose qualifications do not meet the job requirements. It should be also noted that professional retraining is expedient for workers whose experience at their current workplace is minimal, because later on, when performing their daily duties, they accumulate specific human capital, adapt to new professional requirements and successfully cope with their responsibilities.

At the same time, providing persons with disabilities with the access to quality vocational education is a key prerequisite for improving their competitiveness in the labor market. Employment outside one’s specialty has negative consequences for boththeindividualandthestate.Individual costs include the loss of time and money spent on mastering the competencies that in the future cannot become a source of human capital. State costs include the costs of training people with disabilities and the costs of professional training (retraining, education) of those who were unable to find a job within their specialty. Coordination of the areas of vocational training with the interests of region’s employers who create jobs for people with disabilities is the most appropriate way to optimize the costs of training people with disabilities.

In the context of solving this task, it is necessary to pay special attention to the study of return on investment in education. According to the calculations made by specialists at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, completion of a seven-year program at this university will fully pay for itself in four years due to the payment of taxes after a graduate with a disability finds a job (with a salary of about 15 thousand rubles a month). Over the next 3–4 years the costs of the state pension received by persons with disabilities during their studies are paid off.

Annual investment in education of persons with disabilities in the International Independent Ecological-Political University pay for themselves even faster – almost four months employment of graduates, and considering they received during training, pension – less than a year [1, pp. 17–22].

Considering the current structure of employment for persons with disabilities, we can point out that the greatest proportion these people work in agriculture and forestry, hunting (30%), manufacturing (12%), and trade and repairs (12%). It is typical that in the population in general, the largest part of workers are employed in trade – 16%, manufacturing – 14.5%, transport and communication – 9%, education – 9%; and only 6% – in agriculture and forestry (Tab. 1) .

Government statistics do not help find the relation between the area of residence of the disabled person and the industry in

Table 1. Structure of population with disabilities 15–72 years of age who work at their main job, by types of economic activities, 2014, %

Type of economic activity People with disabilities 15–72 years of age For reference: total population 15–72 years of age Total 100 100 Agriculture, hunting and forestry 29.8 6.6 Manufacturing 11.8 14.5 Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles, household goods and personal utensils 11.7 16 Education 9 9.2 Health and social services 8.8 7.9 Operations with real estate, rent and granting of services 5.5 7 Transport and communications 5.4 9.5 Other community, social, personal and other services 5 4.3 Construction 4.4 7.6 Public administration and military security; social insurance 3.1 7.3 Production and distribution of electricity, gas and water 2.2 3.3 Hotels and restaurants 1.4 2.4 Mining 1 2.1 Financial activities 0.5 2.2 Fishing, fish farming 0.3 0.2 Source: Uroven’ i struktura dokhodov domokhozyaistv, sostoyashchikh iz invalidov [Level and structure of income in the households consisting of people with disabilities]. Ofits. sait FSGS [Official website of the Federal State Statistics Service]. Available at: free_doc/new_site/population/invalid/ (accessed 26.06.2016).

which he/she engaged. However, we can assume that there are significant differences in the structure of employment by industry for the residents of urban and rural areas. We consider it impossible to define clearly the factors that determine the presence of a large share of disabled workers employed in agriculture and forestry. At the same time, the low attractiveness of jobs in this sector for the working population as a whole creates a situation of low competition, allowing for the employment of people with disabilities.

At the same time, the fact that there are not many people with disabilities employed in the field of finance and state administration can be explained by the lack of educational programs in these areas that would be suitable for the disabled, also by a low level of training of specialists that are already on the labor market and, as a consequence, their low competitiveness.

As for the hotel and catering industry, in this case an obstacle to the employment of people with disabilities can be found not only in objective factors (shift work), but also in subjective factors (failure of people with disabilities to comply with a stereotypes of employers about the “perfect” hotel or restaurant employee).

If we consider disabled people’s own preferences, then, as the data from the study of employment of disabled people in Voronezh show, in rural areas they mostly prefer professions associated with tailoring and repair of clothes, footwear, and trade, catering, crafts and handicrafts, and in urban areas – professions related to finance and business, computer software, accounting and inventory accounting [6, p. 44].

In general, when organizing events aimed to promote the employment of persons with disabilities, it is necessary to take into account industry-specific regional and local labor market to focus not only on minimizing state costs of training, but also on the prospects of their payoff after people with disabilities have successfully found employment. In our view, an effective mechanism to solve employment problems for persons with disabilities at the local level can be found in the development and implementation of specialized municipal programs, and, in addition, and in keeping the register of unemployed and disabled people, and employers who create jobs for them (including specialized jobs). In some regions such measures have already been taken. For example, the Republic of Dagestan since 2011 maintains a register of unemployed disabled persons, parents of children with disabilities who are employed on special jobs [5, p. 65]. Getting the employers and general population to understand that people with disabilities are equal participants in public life and in employment should remain a priority for the employment of persons with disabilities.

The correspondence of wages to the specifics and volume of the work performed is the main criterion by which any employee assesses the quality of a workplace. Analyzing the level and sources of income in the households whose members are people with and without disabilities, one can see that labor activity does not make a significant contribution to their well-being. According to the data for 2014, average employment income in these households amounted to 1,377 rubles per member of the household (or 6.7% of the value of the total household cash income), which is significantly below the subsistence minimum for the working population and pensioners (Tab. 2).

As follows from the data of a sociological survey conducted in Saint Petersburg, for the majority of persons with disabilities seeking employment, acceptable level of remuneration ranges from 10 to 19 thousand rubles (45% of the respondents). Persons with disability groups 2 and 3 consider parttime employment day or week optimal for them, and persons with severe disabilities (group 1) would prefer to work from home. Unacceptable level of remuneration was considered one of the most common barriers to employment [9, pp. 149–152]. At the same time, it should be noted that Saint Petersburg is a rather expensive city to live in, so this factor has a certain effect on the desired level of wages. Probably, people with disabilities who live in smaller cities and rural areas have lower expectations concerning the level of wages that they should obtain.

Table 2. Level and structure of income in the households whose members are people with and without disabilities, Russian Federation, 2014

Income sources Average per household per month, rubles Average per household member per month, rubles In % to row 1 1. Money income, total 24 273.30 20 523.90 100 2. Income from employment, total 1 925.60 1 628.10 7.9 Labor remuneration 1 628.60 1 377.00 6.7 Income from self-employment 207 175 0.9 Income from other regular employment 90 76.1 0.4 3. Income from property, total 234.4 198.2 1 in it: income from renting real estate and other property 178 150.5 0.7 4. Received transfers, total 22 113.30 18 697.60 91.1 in them: social benefits 21 336.80 18 041.00 87.9 including: pensions 15 953.30 13 489.00 65.7 benefits, compensations and other social payments 5 383.60 4 552.00 22.2 5. Cash receipts from private individuals and organizations, excluding social protection agencies 776.5 656.5 3.2 of these, the alimony and other similar payments 5.7 4.9 0 6. Transfers transferred, total 289.3 244.6 1.2 Income tax on the amount of wages and taxes on income from entrepreneurial activities 205.8 174 0.8 Property tax, fees and other mandatory payments 33.3 28.2 0.1 Insurance premiums for property insurance 50.3 42.5 0.2 7. Disposable money income 23 984.00 20 279.30 98.8 Source: Uroven’ i struktura dokhodov domokhozyaistv, sostoyashchikh iz invalidov [Level and structure of income in the households consisting of people with disabilities]. Ofits. sait FSGS [Official website of the Federal State Statistics Service]. Available at: free_doc/new_site/population/invalid/ (accessed 26.06.2016).

In order to identify the needs of persons with disabilities in employment, executive authorities in 28 Russian Federation subjects in 2013 conducted a survey of unemployed disabled persons of working age. According to the findings, 77% of the respondents were interested in employment, and 20% – in vocational training; 3,241 people (21.6%) expressed a desire to work in the real sector of the economy, 2,533 people (16.9%) would like to work at a specialized enterprise; 719 people (4.8%) would like to start their own business. The results of the survey show that 57% of unemployed disabled persons seeking employment, had no definite professional preferences12. This fact proves the importance and relevance of the work on vocational guidance, vocational training and retraining of persons with disabilities.

The data obtained in the course of a sociological survey of unemployed persons with group 1 disability conducted in Perm Krai show that 62% of the respondents want to work and are actively seeking employment. Forty six percent of the respondents are willing to work outside their profession. Persons with disabilities consider the inability of free movement (68%), and lack of equal employment opportunity (82%) to be the most significant barriers to employment [4, p. 142].

The results of psychological research help distinguish two categories among unemployed disabled people: the first one comprises those who have a job search plan, certain goals and active position; the second category includes those who take a passive stance, relying on assistance from the employment center, receive benefits, and evaluate the condition of unemployment as a critical situation [7, 24].

Russian legislation formally envisages a series of measures aimed to force employers to hire people with a working disability group. Such measures include penalties for failure to meet quotas, for failure to provide adequate reporting on vacancies for people with disabilities, for the mismatch between working conditions for persons with disabilities and the requirements of their individual rehabilitation program. The abundance of punitive measures, however, does not help handle the problem of employment of disabled people efficiently. In those rare cases when a person with a disability still gets a job, he/she is faced with another set of issues: unsuitable working conditions, negative attitude of colleagues, prejudice of the employer and, finally, low wages due to shortened working hours, lack of premium payments due to prolonged periods of disability during treatment. From the point of view of employers, disabled individuals are the worst type of employees, because their training and the provision of comfortable working conditions for them require huge efforts and costs that are not compensated by granting tax privileges and compensations from the government.

According to interviews with employers in Perm Krai, there are many factors that prevent employment of persons with disabilities at enterprises:

– necessity to invest enterprise’s own funds in creating jobs (85%);

– high responsibility for working conditions and mode of work and rest for persons with disabilities (76%);

– shift work that makes it impossible to employ persons with disabilities for which such a schedule is contraindicated;

– harmful working conditions unacceptable for persons with disabilities;

– prohibition against alterations in the enterprise’s organizational structure to ensure compliance with quota arrangements, in case this enterprise is a regional branch (organizational unit), [4, p. 142].

The influence of these factors can be smoothed if the government pursues competent state policy in promoting the employment of persons with disabilities. The criteria for the effectiveness of such a policy should include not only the formal performance of employment centers (the number of people employed at the created/quota-based jobs for the disabled), but the estimation of economic effect of the employment of people with disabilities in the territorial and sectoral perspective and in the context of disability groups.

Attempts to estimate the real costs of the implementation of measures to ensure employment of disabled people meet a number of methodological difficulties. L.P. Khrapylina (2013) in her research points out that for correct determination of the needs of persons with disabilities in employment it is necessary to maintain a federal register of persons with disabilities and their needs (including those associated with employment): in order to estimate the cost of implementing an active policy to facilitate the employment of people with disabilities it is required to perform a reasonable assessment of the cost of creating a workplace for a disabled individual in different economic sectors and in various companies (specialized, small, general, etc.). Taking into account the imperfections of available primary information, the author obtained a final cost estimate for the implementation of an active policy promoting the employment of disabled persons: the cost is about 109.8 billion rubles [10, p. 9].

S.N. Kavokin [2, p. 33] points out the lack of certain characteristics of professions and jobs (content and conditions of work) intended for the disabled and indicates this factor as an obstacle to their employment.

At the same time, according to ISEDT RAS specialists, an exemplary value of the “price of disability” in the Russian Federation in 2012 reached 1,915.9 billion rubles, in which the GDP underproduced by non-working disabled people of working age was 1,465 billion rubles (2.35% of GDP) [8, p. 39].

Therefore, if long-term economic effect of employing people with disabilities is taken into account in the form of tax payments to the budget, then we can say that the implementation of active policies to promote the employment of persons with disabilities is justified. For example, let us calculate the amount of tax revenue at different levels of employment of disabled persons registered in 2015 as unemployed in the Vologda Oblast (Tab. 3) .

According to official data published on the website of the Department of Labor and Employment of the Vologda Oblast, in 2015 the number of disabled people employed on specially equipped workplaces amounted to 205 (204 workplaces), the cost of creating the jobs was 14,828.7 thousand rubles [27]. Therefore, the approximate cost of creating one specially equipped workplace for people with disabilities is estimated at

Table 3. Amount of tax revenue (individual income tax) in the budget of the Vologda Oblast for the year, depending on the number of employed disabled persons and the amount of their wage, rubles

72,689.71 rubles. The expected annual amount of tax revenues as the result of employment of persons with disabilities for the year will be 3,531,231.6 rubles if the wage is equal to the subsistence minimum for able-bodied population (as of the end of 2015); 1,907,607 rubles – if the wage is equal to the minimum wage (for 2015); 8,604,538.8 rubles – if the wage corresponds to the average monthly nominal accrued wages in the region (2015). Under any of these calculations government spending on the creation of a workplace for people with disabilities will be paid off in less than one calendar year. That is, the employment of persons with disabilities brings economic benefits not only to themselves but also to the state.

Thus, the main obstacles to the employment of disabled people in modern Russia are: flaws in the labor market – lack of jobs that allow flexible schedules and working hours; lack of an effective system of incentives for employers to create jobs for people with disabilities.

Our analysis of the problems of employment of disabled people helps identify several key areas of action to enhance the competitiveness of this group in the labor market:

• 1.    Improvement of mechanisms to control the quotas and reservation of jobs. In particular, it is necessary to provide employers with alternative options to implement the requirements on quotas and on creating special jobs for persons with disabilities.

• 2.    Development and adoption of additional economic incentives for employers to hire people with disabilities.

• 3.    Attestation of workplaces of disabled people at specialized and general

• 4.    Formation of a register of unemployed persons with disabilities and parents raising children with disabilities in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

• 5.    Development and adoption of local normative legal acts, target programs governing the work of authorities to promote the employment of persons with disabilities.

• 6.    Regional and federal monitoring of employment needs of disabled persons by groups of disability, types of disability, level of education, economic sectors and occupational groups.

• 7.    Expanding the range of areas of professional training for persons with disabilities taking into account the needs of regional and local labor market, this can be done with the help of potential employers’ means as well. Thus, money paid by the employer for the education of a disabled person may be considered as part of tax payment or as a fulfilled obligation under the assignment of quotas of jobs for persons with disabilities.

enterprises by type of economic activity. Development of a system for evaluating working conditions of disabled workers. Calculation of the approximate cost of creating different types of workplaces for the disabled by type of economic activity.