How to Make New York's Disabled Great Again?

Author: Pavel Kuljuk
Published: 2025/10/01
Publication Type: Opinion Piece, Editorial
Category Topic: Editorials and Op-eds - Academic Publications

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates

Synopsis: This article examines the economic challenges facing disabled New Yorkers, arguing that increased social benefits have failed to address widespread poverty. Despite New York City's expansion of welfare programs—which now support 20% of the population—roughly one-third of the city's disabled residents still live below the poverty line. The author analyzes how, between 2000 and 2017, living costs rose 258% while average wages declined 2%, creating a disparity where 47% of workers earn below the national median wage. With disabled workers earning an average of $36,300 annually in a city where living costs exceed $83,000, the piece advocates for a fundamental shift from welfare dependency to employment opportunity. The author recommends expanding high-wage job sectors and providing targeted skills training for disabled workers, suggesting that tax reforms to attract businesses offering better-paying positions would more effectively combat poverty than continued reliance on government assistance programs - Disabled World (DW).

Introduction

Although New York City is steadily increasing its social support, a third of disabled people in the city live below the poverty line. Experiments with socialism in New York City show that the secret to prosperity lies in high wages, not generous social benefits.

Main Content

Goodbye American Dream. Hello Socialism

New York City is the most expensive metropolitan area in the United States. The average cost of living in the city is $83,596.(1) However, people with disabilities living in the city earn almost three times less than this amount. The average salary for a disabled person in the city is only $36,300. This is almost $14,000 less than the average salary of people without disabilities, who earn $50,500.(2) Despite this, approximately 1 million people with disabilities live in New York City. How do these people survive in New York City, where even non-disabled people have a hard time?

The answer to this question will seem very strange. New York is a city where social policy standards are approaching socialism. The importance of wages in New York is declining, while the importance of social benefits is constantly growing. People with disabilities, as the population group most in need of support, know better than others what it's like to live on government assistance without the chance to create a decent life for themselves. People with disabilities in New York will be the first in the United States to learn what socialism is! The implementation of this social system in New York began after Bill Clinton's welfare reform in 1996. Thanks to this, every state in the United States has gained greater opportunities to build social support for its population.(3)

Let's look at the statistics. From 2000 to 2017, the Consumer Price Index in New York City increased by 258%!(4) But during this same period, average wages in the city decreased by -2.0%.(5) But it was only average wages that decreased. During this same period, the minimum hourly wage increased by 208%. Over 17 years, this figure has increased nine times!(6) Increasing the minimum wage is very simple. All it takes is passing another law. Average wages are a different matter. Average wages cannot be increased by passing a law. Average wages only increase under favorable economic conditions. But New York City doesn't have such economic conditions. Although GDP per capita has increased in the city by 27.1% over 17 years.(7) During the same period, Taxes Collected by New York City increased by 69%.(8) This means the tax burden is increasing twice as fast as the growth of economic activity (read: profits) of businesses. Under these conditions, businesses cannot increase average wages. They can only pay taxes so that people with low wages can receive social benefits!

New Yorkers, and especially those with disabilities, are becoming increasingly dependent on welfare. In 1988, about 1.2 million, or nearly 15% of New Yorkers (9), received welfare. In 2024, that figure was nearly 1.78 million, or 20% of the city's population. (10) But welfare isn't a salary. Welfare won't make you rich. At least in New York City, that's true. In 2022, the poverty rate in New York City was 23%, nearly double the national average of 12%. (10) But among people with disabilities in New York City, things are even worse. 33% of people with disabilities in the city live below the poverty line. (11) The housing market for people with disabilities also fares very poorly. We wrote about this in the article "How Are People With Disabilities Doing in the New York City Housing Market?" (12)

More Wages and Fewer Social Benefits

It's clear that increasing social assistance isn't producing the desired effect. A different approach is needed. One option is to give New Yorkers the opportunity to earn a good income. This involves changing the structure of the New York City labor market.

The median hourly wage in New York City is $40.65. This is 24% higher than the national median hourly wage of $32.66.(13) However, 47% of salaried employees in New York City earn a median hourly wage that is less than the national median of $32.66.

These people work in sectors of the economy characterized by low wages throughout the United States. However, their New York City salaries are only a few percent higher than the national average. This means that the average 24% higher wage in New York City than the national average does not apply to these people. But most interestingly, in most cases, the share of people in these professions in the New York City labor market is higher than in the national labor market.

For example, representatives of the occupational group "Healthcare support" make up 4.8% of the national labor force. Their average hourly wage in the national average is $19.06. In the New York City labor force, the occupational group "Healthcare support" makes up 8.6%. The average hourly wage for representatives of this profession is $20.23. This is less than 1% higher than the national average.(13) In total, New York City has eight occupational groups whose average hourly wage is less than the average hourly wage in the United States of $32.66. The majority of disabled people work in these groups!(2)

In the current situation, people with disabilities have no opportunity to earn money. And as experience shows, social benefits are insufficient for a prosperous life. This forces us to rethink the importance of wages in the lives of people with disabilities. People with disabilities have the right to have the opportunity to earn a good income and become prosperous, not just live a life of poverty on benefits.

There are approximately 200,000 disabled people working in New York City. This is a quarter of the total number of disabled people living in the city.(2)

If New York City increases the share of high-paying jobs and trains people with disabilities in the skills that enable them to fill these jobs, the lives of people with disabilities will improve. This means increasing the high-paying occupational groups of "Management" ($92.78 per hour), "Legal" ($86.28 per hour), "Computer and Mathematical" ($64.31 per hour), "Healthcare Practitioners and Technical" ($58.63 per hour), and so on. This requires cutting taxes and adopting other measures that attract business to the city.

Of course, this is a new and difficult undertaking. And providing this opportunity for people with disabilities will require a special effort. If the authorities can achieve this, New York City's disabled people will be the first people in the United States to know that America is becoming great again!

References

1) https://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/social-security/how-far-average-social-security-check-goes-in-largest-us-cities/

2) https://www.nyc.gov/site/mopd/publications/disability-statistics-in-nyc.page

3) https://www.nycbar.org/reports/welfare-reform-in-new-york-city-the-measure-of-success/

4) https://www.bls.gov/regions/northeast/data/xg-tables/ro2xgcpiny1967.htm

5) https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/employment-wage-growth-btn.pdf

6) https://dol.ny.gov/history-minimum-wage-new-york-state

7) https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/usa-states/new-york

8) https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/printnycbtn92.pdf

9) https://www.city-journal.org/article/kicking-new-yorks-dependency-habit

10) https://council.nyc.gov/data/emergency-food-in-nyc/

11) https://povertycenter.columbia.edu/nyc-poverty-tracker/2020/disability-in-new-york-city

12) https://www.disabled-world.com/disability/housing/ny-housing.php

13) https://www.bls.gov/regions/northeast/news-release/occupationalemploymentandwages_newyork.htm

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Editorial Note: The question facing New York's policymakers isn't whether to support disabled residents, but how. This analysis reveals an uncomfortable truth: good intentions don't always produce good outcomes. While compassionate welfare expansion seems humane, the data suggests it has created a trap rather than a ladder. When a third of disabled New Yorkers remain impoverished despite extensive benefits, the system isn't working. The prescription offered here—prioritizing wage growth over benefit expansion—challenges conventional progressive thinking, but the statistics are difficult to dismiss. Whether city leaders have the political courage to reduce taxes and reshape the labor market remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: the current approach is failing the very people it aims to help - Disabled World (DW).

Author Credentials: Pavel Kuljuk's articles and poems are published in Australia, North America, and Europe. In recent years, he has been constantly collaborating with Australian Rural & Regional News (Australia), Red Hook Daily Catch and OpEd News (USA), and Disabled World (Canada). Kuliuk's individual publications are in Forbes (Kazakhstan), Rural 21 (Germany), London Loves Business (UK), Karrep (India), RealClearDefense (RCD), Change Links, Daily Caller (USA), and many others. Explore for comprehensive insights into his background, expertise, and accomplishments.

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Citing and References

Founded in 2004, Disabled World (DW) is a leading resource on disabilities, assistive technologies, and accessibility, supporting the disability community. Learn more on our About Us page.

Cite This Page: Pavel Kuljuk. (2025, October 1). How to Make New York's Disabled Great Again?. Disabled World (DW). Retrieved October 2, 2025 from www.disabled-world.com/editorials/ny-disabled.php

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