According to statistics based on studies by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center for Economic Research on Employment for Persons with Disabilities, the employment rates of men with disabilities fell by 23 percent, and for women with disabilities by 5 percent between 1992 and 2000 (Winter 2004).

             Since the effective date of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the number of persons with disabilities who are employed or actively seeking work has declined (Harris 1995). Only 30.2 percent of men with a disability were employed or actively looking for work in 1994, down from 34 percent in 1992 (Harris 1995). Although the economic expansion during the 1990's was broad and deep, and reached Americans of all races, ethnicities, and income levels, for the nearly 10 percent of the working-age population with disabilities, strong economic growth during the 1990's did not produce higher rates of employment or rapid income gains (Houtenville 2000).

             In the wake of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, a major shift occurred from welfare to work for single women with children, while the opposite was true for people with disabilities (Winter 2004). Over the last decade, the transition of single mothers off public assistance and into employment has surprised many, including leading policy researchers (Winter 2004). Experts on the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children Program failed to predict this success (Winter 2004). One cause, according to economist Richard Burkhauser, was a coordinated change in incentives, all of which encouraged work, either with the "carrot" of work-based benefits or the "stick" of limits of nonwork benefits (Winter 2004). Yet, the success can be credited most especially to the dramatic expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is a wage subsidy that makes work pay for individuals with low skills (Winter 2004).