The Economics of Employment

Thomas N. Chirikos provides an economic analysis of the supply and demand of workers with disabilities and concludes that levels of accommodation costs observed at present may be attributable to the low employment levels of persons with disabilities. These variables should be expected to move together in the future. Positing that persons with disabilities who enter the labor force post ADA are likely to be more severely impaired than those currently employed, therefore requiring more expensive accommodations, Chirikos argues that an increase in employment will result in higher accommodation costs. If we accept Chirikos' conclusions, the critical question for accommodation costs becomes the question of who pays. When people with disabilities are working, it clearly benefits the economy; however, the cost to individual businesses may be prohibitive in certain circumstances. Chirikos concludes that issues in generating employment for persons with disabilities will have to be faced more squarely. Policy tools beyond the scope of the ADA may have to be used to ensure thatpersons with disabilities are fully integrated into the American economy, including the expanded use of subsidies and alternative means of sharing the burden between the employer and employee. Clearly Congress recognized this redistributive issue when enacting the small-business tax credit for ADA-related expenditures. The Chirikos logic leads to the conclusion that the more successful the