New research: Disability workforce and pay gap reporting

Our long-term research on disability workforce and pay gap reporting.

Last updated: 19 March 2025

Towards meaningful disability workforce and pay gap reporting

Business Disability Forum has published its long-term qualitative research – ‘Towards meaningful disability workforce and pay gap reporting’.

Inclusion appears to be 'double edged'. To be included, do we have to say we have a disability? Employers should just be kind to everybody.'

Our research follows the development of Government policy proposals and employers’ practices on collecting and reporting information about the number of disabled people in their workforces and the gap between what they are paid compared to non-disabled employees.

Our research found that mandatory disability workforce and pay gap reporting can have many unintended consequences for disabled employees.While mandatory reporting is well-intentioned, reporting on numbers and the pay gap alone would not achieve meaningful change for disabled people in the workplace.

Key findings

  • Mandatory disability workforce and pay gap reporting can have many unintended consequences for disabled employees.  
  • Disabled employees were more against mandatory reporting than employers.  
  • Newly proposed reporting requirements would mean some employers would need to fulfil 4 (sometimes more) mandatory reporting responsibilities – each with different requirements.   
  • Organisations that had opened up their support and workplace adjustments support to any employee who wanted to work in a different way found that the number of employees saying they have a disability fell.  
  • Meaningful disability pay gap reporting isn’t about how much disabled employees earn; it’s about why they earn what they earn. 
it's rare that we need people to disclose their disability. If instead we ask everyone what they need, that's actually all we need. By requiring disclosure, we exclude people who aren't diagnosed.
Disability workforce reporting does not, and cannot measure the experience of having a disability; it can only capture the number of people who say they have a disability one specific 'snapshot' moment in time.

Reports

You can read more about the the background to our research, the findings and our recommendations for Government and policy makers in the full report and executive summary below.

Read full report – Accessible PDF

Read full report – Word

Read executive summary – Accessible PDF

Find out more about our disability workforce and pay gap reporting project

Media

Thank you

Thank you to all of the employers and disabled employees who contributed their time and shared their views with us throughout this project.

If you require this content in a different format, contact enquiries@businessdisabilityforum.org.uk.

© This resource and the information contained therein are subject to copyright and remain the property of the Business Disability Forum. They are for reference only and must not be copied or distributed without prior permission.

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