Disability Innovation Fund’s Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment Project Evaluation

The federal fiscal year 2022 Disability Innovation Fund is supporting fourteen state grantees to improve options for transitioning people with disabilities from subminimum wage employment to competitive integrated employment. The national evaluation will allow the Rehabilitation Services Administration to look across all Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment projects and identify findings useful for the vocational rehabilitation and employment fields.

The purpose of the national evaluation is: (1) to identify how, for whom, and in what context the projects and their strategies are most effective; (2) to document how other state VR agencies and their partners can replicate the successful aspects of the projects; and (3) to make findings from the evaluation useful for policymakers and practitioners.

To that end, Mathematica’s evaluation team will answer a range of research questions oriented on five types of analyses (participation, implementation, outcomes, impact, and benefit-cost) and four analysis levels (project participants who are in subminimum wage employment or contemplating subminimum wage employment; 14(c) certificate holders, other employers, and service providers; system changes; and the Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment projects).