Financial assistance is accorded to employers to compensate for the potentially lower levels of training and productivity of disabled persons, as well as the possible costs of adapting their jobs, accordingly. But the main instrument is a legal obligation, since 1987, for private sector companies with twenty or more employees to employ disabled workers up to 6% of their workforce. To fulfil this obligation, they have several non-exclusive options: direct hiring, indirect hiring (subcontracting and temporary work), training, signing a collective agreement for the integration of disabled persons or, finally, giving a financial contribution equivalent to a full discharge status. In 2016, only 19% of the companies subject to the obligation to employ disabled workers had a proportion of disabled employment, whether direct or indirect, greater than or equal to the legal rate.
Do the efforts made by companies have an impact on their economic performance? If so, can the extent of these effects be estimated? Conducted using a large panel of companies between 2012 and 2016, our econometric analysis shows that the size and sector of activity of companies plays a significant role in the extent of their efforts to employ disabled persons. In particular, the information and communication sector provides relatively little direct recruitment effort, unlike the sectors of public administration, education, health or social work. Moreover, the study shows that the increased effort to hire workers with disabilities does not penalise the economic and financial performance of companies. Nor is there any particular link between the level of performance of companies, and their response to the obligation to employ disabled workers, providing that size, location and sector effects are statistically controlled.
Distribution of companies by direct, indirect and overall employment rate of disabled workers in 2016
Reading: 12.7% of companies have a direct employment rate of disabled workers between 2% and 3%; 4.8% of companies have an indirect employment rate of disabled workers between 2% and 3%; and 12.2% of companies have an employment rate of disabled workers (direct or indirect) between 2% and 3%. For a given percentages range, the sum of the first two percentages does not equal the third, since a company with a direct employment rate in one percentages range may have an indirect employment rate in another range.
Source: Agefiph data (2016), France Stratégie calculations.
