Abstract
Close to ten percent of the U.S. is without paid employment. Increased national unemployment rates are even more devastating for those, such as people with disabilities, who already experience higher rates of unemployment, even during successful economic times. It is the purpose of this thesis to look at employment and income of the disability community in the U.S. Using the 2006 American Community Survey, this study looks at the impact of disability on work and income while controlling for other factors that can influence employment and wages, such as age, sex, education, marital status, and race. It will also breakdown disability by type, using the six labels of disability that the American Community Survey created for their survey and look at the sociodemographic predictors of each type of disability. This study finds similar results as previous studies, which have shown that people with disabilities experience lower employment rates than their non-disabled counterparts (Mitchell et al. 2006) and therefore experience lower levels of income.