Berry Street Yooralla welcomes new Grattan Institute report on disability employment reform
July 27, 2026
We support the report's recommendations to improve access to meaningful, fairly paid employment for people with disability.
Berry Street Yooralla has welcomed the release of a new report from the Grattan Institute, ‘Opening doors: Better jobs and fairer wages for disabled workers’, which sets out a roadmap for reforming Australia's disability employment system.
Berry Street Yooralla strongly supports its findings and recommendations.
A system that isn't delivering
The report finds that Australia's disability employment system is failing the people who need it most. Despite more than $1.3 billion in annual public investment, employment outcomes remain poor, particularly for people with high support needs. Employment rates sit at just 34% for Australians with profound or severe disability, compared with 82% for people without disability. Many of those in work are paid under the Supported Wage System, with rates that can fall as low as $3.31 an hour.
The report found that too many Australians with disability who have high support needs are excluded from the workforce altogether, or channelled into low-paid, sheltered work with little opportunity to progress.
Four recommendations for reform
The Grattan Institute makes four key recommendations to fix the system:
1. Prioritise open employment for disabled people with high support needs
Establish a dedicated stream within Inclusive Employment Australia focused on supporting people with high support needs into open employment, backed by redirected funding, best-practice standards, and better information for supported employees, families and students.
2. Expand mainstream employment opportunities for disabled people
Introduce public reporting requirements for large employers on disability employment and disclosure rates, strengthen government leadership through public sector targets and procurement, and reform the Disability Support Pension to remove barriers to taking up work.
3. Preference sustainable jobs in commercially viable Disability Social Enterprises paying fair wages
Set new certification standards for Disability Social Enterprises that require fair wages, inclusive workplaces, worker autonomy and genuine progression opportunities, and support providers to transition to this model through funding, practical assistance and procurement policy.
4. Move away from sub-minimum wages and disability-only employment
By 2034, seek a Fair Work Commission review of whether sub-minimum wages under the Supported Employment Services Award and Supported Wage System remain necessary, alongside a dedicated fund to support workers who don't transition into open employment.
This aligns closely with a key recommendation of the Disability Royal Commission, which called for the transformation of Australian Disability Enterprises and the elimination of sub-minimum wages for people with disability by 2034.
Berry Street Yooralla's commitment
Berry Street Yooralla supports better employment outcomes for people with disability, including through our own published commitment to achieving wage equity for our Supported Employees by 1 July 2028, and to supporting people with disability to explore the full range of their employment options.
We've established programs that help people identify their goals, choices and the supports they need, including on-the-job support, to secure meaningful, sustainable jobs in open employment settings. None of this would be possible without committed employment partners who are willing to pay Award wages, and we thank those partners for their ongoing collaboration.
We look forward to working with government, employers and the sector to help turn the Grattan Institute's recommendations into action, and to building a future where every person with disability has the opportunity to work in a fair, well-paid and meaningful job.
Read the full report from the Grattan Institute.
