Disabled Workers and Wage Losses: Some Evidence from Workers with Occupational Injuries

Abstract

Using data from the Survey of Ontario Workers with Permanent Impairments (1989–90), the authors examine the effects of work-related disabilities on the wage losses of disabled male workers. One important focus of the analysis is whether the size of disabled workers' wage losses was affected by whether they remained at or left the job where the accident occurred. The authors also estimate the longer-term persistence of wage shocks for disabled workers. The estimates suggest that wage losses were larger for disabled workers who did not return to work with their time-of-accident employer than for those who did return, with the latter earning 27% more. Furthermore, wages appear to have been more persistent for workers who did not return to their accident employer than for those who did return.