Disability Saliency and Discrimination in Hiring

Theory suggests that disability discrimination protections may adversely affect the hiring of individuals with disabilities by making them more expensive. Using SIPP data, we explore how the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), which expanded disability discrimination protections, affected the relative hiring rate of individuals with disabilities. We employ new categorizations of disability type: salient physical conditions, non-salient physical conditions, mental retardation and developmental disability, and other mental conditions. We find that the ADAAA had no effect other than increasing hiring for those with non-salient physical conditions. These results suggest that condition saliency may mediate the effects of discrimination protections on hiring.