| The
definition of work
disability used in the Current Population Survey (CPS) can be found on
the Census Bureau web site. This definition was created and is controlled by the Census
Bureau. As part of this definition, the government also created the
sub-categories of severely and not severely disabled. The U.S. Census Bureau, using research
and survey work done by them and by the Social Security Administration,
developed the definition of work disability for use in the CPS and began
using it in the March Supplement survey in 1981.
As early as 1983, the Census Bureau began publishing data based on
this definition. This first
publication, Labor Force Status and Other Characteristics of Persons
With a Work Disability: 1982
was updated in 1989.
In 1994, Vocational Econometrics asked the Census Bureau to tabulate work disability statistics from the CPS for
the years that had passed since its 1989 publication, using the same
definitions and methodologies the Bureau had previously used.
This special tabulation resulted in the rates of participation and
employment used by Vocational Econometrics in its 1995 version of the
worklife tables. Beginning with data from the 1995 survey, the Census Bureau has continued this
tabulation and published the data on its
web
site. Vocational Econometrics released a 1998 version of its tables, relying upon the data
from the Census web site. The 2002 version of The Tables again uses the Census Bureau's definition of work
disability and relies on data from the Public Use Data Files available
from the Census Bureau.
The Tables simply utilize government data that continue to be tabulated using
the government’s original definition.Opponents of CPS data sometimes quote
a government definition of disability not measured in the CPS (“persons
with a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or
more of the major life activities”).
This definition, however, is not the appropriate definition of
disability to use in tort cases involving lost earnings.
The definition quoted above is a much broader one that, though
consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act, includes people who
do not have limitations in the kind or amount of work they can
perform. For forensic purposes, when assessing loss of lifetime earnings, the most important and
relevant focus is on persons who have a work disability, the definition
used in the CPS. This is the exact issue addressed by Mr. John McNeil, formerly with the Census Bureau, in an
affidavit. |
