Disability Discrimination: Employer Considerations of Disabled Jobseekers in Light of the Ideal Worker

Abstract

Labour market stratification and discrimination of disabled people remains a less researched topic compared to other minorities despite being a notably disadvantaged group. This article explores the employer side of discrimination against disabled jobseekers by using a field experiment conducted in Norway as its point of departure. Through qualitative follow-up interviews, this article investigates employers’ assessments of equally qualified mobility-impaired candidates in a field experiment. The article employs the theoretical perspective of the ideal worker to shed light on how employers evaluate disabled jobseekers against an able-bodied ideal. Although previous literature on disability and the ideal worker has shown the imperative of asserting productivity, the findings in the current article reveal a stronger emphasis on social considerations as grounds for exclusion. The findings show how tacit constructions of the ideal worker not only relate to productivity but also to the creation of the socially integrated workplace.

Do Large Employers Discriminate Less? An Exploration of Company Size Variation in Disability Discrimination Based on Data from two Field Experiments

“…To be sure, it cannot be completely ruled out as contributing to the lower level of discrimination against wheelchair users in the largest companies. However, previous qualitative research nevertheless suggests that anti-discrimination legislation has had little impact on Norwegian companies' hiring practices towards disabled people (Kuznetsova and Yalcin, 2017) and that there may be little awareness of disability discrimination legislation (Østerud, 2022). One can therefore speculate whether, for example, enforcement and increased monitoring of companies' adherence to their proactive non-discrimination duties might encourage a more active and systematic approach to identifying discriminatory barriers in organizational routines and behaviors as well as potential remedies.…”

“…Relative to smaller employers, their offices may also more often be wheelchair accessible, thus removing the need to adapt the workplace. Furthermore, qualitative interviews with a subset of the employers that participated in the field experiment revealed that employers in small companies may also be more prone to make hiring decisions based on perceptions of similarity and on whether applicants will fit into the workplace culture and be able to participate in social activities, thereby excluding wheelchair users due to disability stereotypes and inaccessibility outside the workplace (Bjørnshagen and Østerud, 2021; Østerud, 2022). While the data do not allow for addressing the relative importance of these mechanisms as well as others outlined above, several of them may contribute to the observed pattern between company size and discrimination against wheelchair users.…”

“…However, the inconsistent findings may also be related more directly to employers' evaluations of the specific type of impairment. Employers are, for example, more likely to expect higher levels of sickness absence and associated costs from applicants who disclose a history of mental health problems than from applicants who disclose that they are wheelchair users (e.g., Bubonya, Cobb-Clark and Wooden, 2017;Janssens et al, 2021;Østerud, 2022). Mental illness accounts for a significant proportion of the doctor-certified sick leave in the Norwegian labor market, estimated at about 16 per cent in 2020 and 2021 (Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, 2021).…”

“…The notion of fitting in and hiring based on similarity has been a recurring theme in the literature on recruitment in small companies (Carroll et al, 1999), and evidence also suggest that such evaluations become especially prominent when hiring is informal and unstructured (Rivera, 2020). Findings from qualitative interviews with a subsample of the employers that were subject to the current field experiment on discrimination against wheelchair users indicate that concerns about whether candidates will fit into the workplace culture may be a more salient barrier to hiring applicants with impairments in small organizations because each individual employee has a greater relative impact on the work environment (Bjørnshagen and Østerud, 2021; Østerud, 2022).…”

Mental illness stigma and employer evaluation in hiring: Stereotypes, discrimination and the role of experience

“…By recruiting employers from this field experiment, the methodological design pairs valuable behavioural information from a real recruitment situation with in‐depth qualitative interview data. The pairing of field experiments and qualitative interviews is not a common methodological design, but there are some examples in the sociological literature demonstrating its utility for uncovering the mechanisms of discrimination (Birkelund et al., 2020 ; Midtbøen, 2014 ; Østerud, 2022a , 2022b ). Previous research has identified a gap between what employers say they do and what they actually do (Pager & Quillian, 2005 ).…”