Introduction

As we celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Department of Labor (DOL) reflects on its efforts to build more equitable and inclusive workplaces. Over the last year, DOL worked to increase hiring and retention of individuals with disabilities in competitive integrated employment, focused on an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, conducted research to better understand equity issues in disability employment, strengthened enforcement and developed resources to promote good jobs for Americans with disabilities, including those with mental health conditions. What follows is a small sample of the extensive work accomplished this year.

Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE)

  • Through the Interagency Policy Committee Disability Employment Subgroup on Employment, the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is collaborating with seven federal agencies to develop a forthcoming interagency memorandum and FAQs on blending, braiding and sequencing (BBS) of resources and funding to increase CIE for people with disabilities.
    • To augment this effort, ODEP’s Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Policy Development Center (LEAD Center) hosted two webinars (in March and June) and will host a third webinar on August 11 to respond to the many emerging questions about this work.

Mental Health

  • To complement EBSA’s advocacy for and enforcement of mental health parity, ODEP has been working to convey the message that employers play a key role in supporting workers with mental health conditions by creating mental health-friendly workplaces.
    • On March 29, 2022, ODEP launched the Mental Health at Work: What Can I Do PSA Campaign. Produced by the Campaign for Disability Employment, the PSA highlights how everyone in a workplace setting can promote workplace well-being.
    • ODEP worked with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to update the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN) Mental Health Toolkit, which includes information and resources regarding co-occurrence of substance use disorder, and developed an accompanying online course for creating mental health friendly workplaces.
  • In May 2022, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) launched a new web page featuring resources on mental health conditions, including a newly issued fact sheet on Mental Health Conditions and the Family and Medical Leave Act, which explains when eligible employees of covered employers may use FMLA leave for their own or a family member’s mental health condition, and new Questions and Answers to common scenarios involving leave for mental health conditions.

Equity 

  • DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), in partnership with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), launched the Hiring Initiative to Reimagine Equity (HIRE) in January 2022. HIRE will identify strategies to remove barriers to hiring, and to promote effective, job-related hiring and recruitment practices to advance equal employment opportunity and provide access to good jobs for workers, including workers with disabilities. The agencies have held stakeholder listening sessions and three public roundtables, examining practices including employer screens for gaps in employment and promising practices such as skills-based hiring.
  • DOL published a report detailing how women, especially women of color, including women with disabilities, were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 economic crisis because they were overrepresented in industries that experienced the pandemic’s worst job losses. The report provides strategies for eliminating occupational segregation and for promoting equity for women in employment as the nation recovers from the pandemic.
  • ODEP published a series of data briefs examining employment of individuals with disabilities in underserved communities. This includes a policy brief and data analysis estimating access to Paid Family Medical Leave for workers with disabilities, including those from underrepresented groups, a data spotlight blog and research report on Black workers with disabilities for Black History Month, a data spotlight on women with disabilities and a blog and data snapshot on the experience of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders with disabilities in the workforce.
  • ETA awarded $121 million in Apprenticeship Building America grants to strengthen and modernize Registered Apprenticeship programs and enable workers to find a reliable pathway to the middle class. Of that amount, $58 million went to grantees focusing on equity partnerships and pre-apprenticeship activities.
  • In November 2021, the WHD published a final rule implementing the President’s minimum wage executive order, which ensures a $15 minimum wage for workers with disabilities performing work on or in connection with covered federal contracts.
  • In July 2022, ODEP worked with DOL’s Office of Apprenticeship to rollout their new apprenticeship ambassadors program by enlisting the participation of technology companies and apprenticeship intermediaries and organizations representing a diverse clientele, including people with disabilities.
  • In 2021, the Women’s Bureau (WB) launched its Fostering Access, Rights and Equity (FARE) grant program, supporting $2 million in grants to six grant recipients working to help women workers who earn low wages learn about and access their employment rights and benefits through a combination of education and outreach, benefits navigation and calculation, resource and referral and community empowerment activities. The Bureau is preparing to award another $2M in FARE grants this year. Disability rights awareness programs would be eligible for funding under this grant.
  • Beginning in 2021, the WB’s Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) grant program gave priority to organizations that have served as an equity intermediary in the past and those who proposed to focus on expanding outreach/recruitment to historically underrepresented communities, including individuals with disabilities. In addition, required reporting measures were added that focus on increasing women from underrepresented communities served by the grant and documenting promising practices in increasing recruitment, outreach and participation of women from these communities. Five community-based organizations were awarded about $3.3M in FY 2021 and approximately $3.4M will be awarded in FY 2022. 
  • To help the public better understand persistent gender and racial wage disparities and related statutory protections, the WB maintains a robust set of resources that includes wage comparison data across a multitude of occupations, industries and worker demographics, as well as an interactive state map summarizing state-level equal pay and pay transparency laws. 

Technology 

  • In May 2022, ODEP’s Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology (PEAT) initiative developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Inclusion Toolkit to help technology companies and employers navigate the potential risks of implementing new AI technologies for job seekers with disabilities, as well as to outline practices they can adopt to make AI implementations more equitable.
  • In June 2022, ODEP published a research brief examining the disability digital divide and how it relates to disability employment. The brief observes associations of disability status, home internet subscription types and internet use with employment retention between 2019 and 2020.

COVID/Long COVID 

  • ODEP launched a COVID-19 webpage with resources to support workers, employers, youth, and policymakers to help individuals with disabilities respond to and recover from the Coronavirus pandemic. In May 2022, the page was updated to include numerous resources for individuals experiencing Long COVID and its associated conditions. This page is continually updated to address the evolving needs brought on by the pandemic.
  • Using data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), ODEP’s data brief provides insight into key labor force statistics for people with disabilities, employment across industries and occupations, the effect of the ease of social distancing and the ability to telework on occupational employment change during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • To better understand the impact of long COVID-19 in U.S. workplaces, DOL, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Surgeon General convened a national online dialogue, running through August 15, 2022, to gather ideas to better support workers coping with symptoms, their co-workers and their employers. ODEP, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, EBSA, ETA and the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs are co-hosting the event on behalf of DOL.

Good Jobs Initiative 

  • DOL’s Good Jobs Initiative (GJI) includes assistance to federal agencies charged with implementing key employment components of the almost $2T in new funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Under DOL’s leadership, and with ODEP’s support, this assistance has included promotion of OFCCP’s goal of at least 7% disability hiring in new infrastructure grants and contracts, as well as ensuring the accessibility of new transit projects, equal access to broadband capacity-building efforts and more inclusive clean energy apprenticeships and jobs programs.