The Effect of the Disability Registration System on Employment for Persons with Disabilities

• In Event: 41021 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 21: Quantitative Methods

Abstract

This study aims to empirically analyze the effect of Disability Registration System on the employment of Persons with disabilities (PWD). The Disability Registration System refers to the procedure of assessing whether an individual meets the legal definition of disability and registering the type and degree of disability in the national administrative system in South Korea. This system is key to accessing welfare services, including employment support programs such as job placement assistance and mandatory employment quotas. However, many individuals with physical or mental impairments remain excluded from these systems due to strict registration criteria and socially constructed definitions of disability. This exclusion poses significant challenges, as these individuals are less likely to access both labor markets and institutional support. This study aims to analyze whether labor market participation can be influenced by eligibility for social and institutional support, even among individuals experiencing similar health issues. Focusing on people at the boundaries of disability, the primary goal is to explore differences in labor market participation when individuals become eligible for disability welfare services. The analysis utilized data from the 2017 Survey Persons with Disabilities and focused on 3,574 individuals with not severe or unregistered PWD. Logistic regression was conducted with disability registration status as the independent variable and labor market participation as the dependent variable. Control variables include age, gender, self-rated health, education, marital status, household income, and the degree of need for assistance in daily living. The findings can be summarized as follows: First, the probability of labor market participation differs based on disability registration status. Second, being registered as PWD increases the probability of labor market participation by 1.91 times (p < .05, OR = 1.917). These results are significant as they explore the relationship between disability and labor, highlighting the exclusion experienced by unregistered PWD in employment.

Author

• Jinhong Min, Seoul National University