Fewer working, lower pay

A Norwegian study questioned 7,000 hearing impaired people about their performance in the labour market.

The study confirmed that hearing impaired people have a harder time than people without hearing loss finding employment. Approximately 63 percent are employed, as compared to 71 percent of the general public.

The study also found hearing impaired employees to receive less pay, 16 percent less, on average, than their normal hearing people.

The lower pay and employment may be attributed to a lower level of education among hearing impaired people. Among the normal hearing population, 27 percent had extensive education, as compared to 20 percent among the hearing impaired population.

For hearing impaired people to do well in the workplace often requires an extra effort. More than one half of the hearing impaired respondents said that their hearing loss caused 'some' problems, while 10 percent termed their hearing impairment 'extremely troublesome'.

Source: Din hørsel, 4 May, 2004