The following blog was generously provided by Smart Incentives – an organization that helps communities use economic development incentives to achieve their targeted development goals. It addresses a new initiative aimed at addressing hiring discrepancies for individuals with disabilities. You can read the original blog here. 

Employment for individuals with disabilities is an important economic development issue. According to the Council of State Governments and National Conference of State Legislatures:

• An estimated 1 in 5 Americans live with a disability
• 28% of non-institutionalized people with disabilities age 18-64 fall below the poverty line
• 20% of people with disabilities participate in the workforce compared to 69% without disabilities
• The percentage of the US population with a disability is expected to double in the next 20 years

In the United States in 2020, only 17.9% of people with disabilities were employed, compared to 61.8% of people without disabilities. The disparity is even worse when examined by race.

Smart Incentives is undertaking an initiative to examine state incentives for hiring people with disabilities. Research suggests that federal and state tax credits can be an effective policy for getting individuals into jobs. However, data also show that these credits are small, under-utilized, and leave many potential beneficiaries un-served. We believe redesigning hiring incentives and raising awareness will help them achieve their intended policy objective.

We have also realized that there are significant racial disparities across employment patterns for individuals with disabilities. Specific policy initiatives to address these disparities are also much-needed. Smart Incentives will be using the Clear Impact Scorecard and its Results-Based Accountability framework to structure our approach to this challenge within the context of our incentive work. We are pleased to share our draft scorecard and Turn the Curve Action plan with you.

You can view the Turn the Curve Action Plan for the Indicator “% Black or African American People with Disabilities Employed” below (scroll to view the entire plan):

You can learn more and view the entire Scorecard here.

Smart Incentives submitted the above-linked Scorecard as part of Clear Impact’s Racial Equity Turn the Curve Action Plan Poster Contest. Five finalist’s submissions will be presented at the Measurable Equity Conference, where attendees can vote on their favorite plan. One winner will receive $25,000. You can learn more about the conference, speakers, and sessions at MeasurableEquity.com. 

About the Authors:

Regan Price is an Economic Development Research Intern with the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC). At CREC, she supports senior staff in research, writing, and database management projects on a variety of economic and workforce development topics, such as broadband access, mitigating poverty, and state and regional strategic planning. Ms. Price also works closely with Dr. Ellen Harpel, a Senior Research Fellow at CREC and owner of Smart Incentives, to research the policy and social factors that affect workforce participation in the United States by people with disabilities, as well as the extent to which state incentive policy design can increase the rate in which people with disabilities participate in the labor force. Ms. Price will graduate from Virginia Tech in May of 2022 and hold a Master of Public Administration degree. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with a Concentration in Ethics and Public Policy from Virginia Commonwealth University.”

Ellen D. Harpel, Ph.D., is the founder of Smart Incentives, which helps communities make sound decisions throughout the economic development incentives process. She is also president of Business Development Advisors LLC (BDA), an economic development and market intelligence consulting firm in Arlington, VA. Ellen holds a Ph.D. in Regional Economics from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She received her Masters of Business Administration from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina

About Smart Incentives:

Smart Incentives’ mission is to make economic development incentives work better for local, state, and national governments. They help economic development organizations achieve better outcomes by providing processes and solutions that make incentives easier to manage. Smart Incentives is also at the forefront of efforts to develop more robust processes for monitoring compliance and evaluating the effectiveness of incentive programs.