Autism and Employment
Employment is an issue for people with autism, but one that is not talked about as often as it should be. Most conversations about autism focus on school performance, particularly in children. Those conversations are important, to be sure, but the workforce is where people tend to spend most of their lives.
Unfortunately, employment prospects for people with autism are not very good. A study led by Dr. Paul Shattuck found that young adults with autism have worse employment outcomes that those with other disabilities. They report that just over half of the young adults on the autism spectrum they surveyed had ever worked for pay outside the home within the first eight years after leaving high school. Only about one in five young adults with ASDs worked full-time at a current or most-recent job. The average pay was $8.10 per hour.
I myself have never held a job. I have only had a summer internship and done some freelance writing for the campus newspaper. However, I am going to graduate from university within a year’s time, and so this subject weighs heavily on my mind. I’m worried, not just for my prospects, but for all on the spectrum looking for employment. Finding a job in today’s market is hard enough for neurotypical people, let alone for someone with a disability.
Because of our limitations, we are often seen as being valueless and burdens on employers, regardless of whether or not it is actually true. The truth is, people with autism can be just as valuable as any other employee. I for instance, have a strong eye for detail, picking up on small things that others might overlook. That kind of skill is helpful in editing and analysis. But will an employer see that? Or will they just see my disability?
There is some good news. Several months ago, the US Department of Labor ruled that there was a violation of federal minimum wage laws made by a sheltered workshop that underpaid several employees with disabilities, including one with autism. There is an exception to federal minimum wage law, known as Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows certain employers to pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage if they can show that the disabilities prevent them from being as “productive” as the average nondisabled worker. Although federal law allows workers with disabilities to file a petition for review of their wages by the U.S. Department of Labor, the employees of this workshop were the first to use the process to fight for fair wages. Because of the low level of enforcement, many workshops routinely underpay employees with disabilities merely on the assumption that because they have disabilities they must be less productive than those without and using flawed methods to provide “documentation”. The ruling by the Department of Labor suggests that they will be performing greater enforcement of fair pay standards for people with disabilities, including autism.
An independent editorial Dr. Patricia Howlin in the same journal issue as the study mentioned earlier also showed cautious optimism. She wrote, “…if young adults with autism miss out on this rite of passage, they risk transition into a world of social exclusion, financial hardship and significantly decreased quality of life. On the positive side, there is evidence that specialized, supported employment programs can be very helpful in assisting young people into work and in improving quality of life and even cognitive performance.”
We can hope that things will get better. But more importantly, we need to find a way to improve them.
