Multiple Disparities and Social Policies for Persons with Disabilities in Korea

Abstract

This study explored the gap between persons with and without disabilities (PDWs and non-PWDs) in various policy dimensions in Korea. The analysis of this gap was conducted in the four policy areas with high social demands of PWDs; income, labor, housing, and health. In addition, education, assets, and social security were added to analyze multidimensional poverty consisting of seven dimensions. The 7th~14th (2011~2018) data of the Korean Welfare Panel Study were used. As an analysis method, Oaxaca-Blinder’s decomposition method was used, which divides the gap into explained and unexplained gaps. Additionally, Alkire-Foster’s multidimensional poverty index was used. The main findings are as follows. First of all, although the labor income gap between PDWs and non-PWDs is gradually widening, public transfer income has contributed considerably to narrowing the gap. As a result of decomposing the income gap, characteristics effects accounted for about 60% of the gap, and about 54% of the gap in poverty rates. The gap in the employment rate between PDWs and non-PWDs has recently increased, while the gap in the low-wage rate is gradually decreasing. A large part of the labor gap is represented by coefficients effects, therefore the problem of disability discrimination in the labor market appears to be serious. In the housing area, the gap in the minimum housing standard and the overburdened housing cost is gradually narrowing. The gap in unmet healthcare needs, catastrophic medical expenditure, subjective health, and depression is also found to be large, and income levels explain a large part of the gap. The multidimensional poverty gap between PDWs and non- PWDs was also large. And the duration of multidimensional poverty among PDWs was long and the rate of transition was low. Moreover, the transition of multidimensional poverty was deeply related to the transition of deprivation of health, labor and housing. In the decomposition of the multidimensional poverty gap between PDWs and non-PWDs, a significant part of the gap was found to be coefficients effects that was explained by social structural causes. Based on the results of the analysis, individual responses in four areas of income, labor, housing, and health, and responses to complex structures in multiple dimensions were suggested to reduce the gap between PDWs and non-PWDs.