Worker Adaptation and Employer Accommodation following the Onset of a Health Impairment

Abstract

The responses of workers and their employers to the onset of work-limiting health impairments were in vestigated using data from the new Health and Retirement Study. The results indicate that many workers who suffer from health limitations are directly accommodated by their employers, and that those who do not receive direct accommodation frequently adapt to their limitations by altering their job demands or by changing jobs. These findings point to the potential for adjustments on both sides of the market: by employers, in the form of job accommodation, and by employees, in the form of job change.