Employing Persons with Disability

Positive support measures to end underemployment of persons with disabilities are key to unlock job potential. In the Budget Speech for 2015, Government committed to enforce the 2% quota, which denotes that for employers hiring more than 20 employees, at least 2% of the workforce must be persons with a disability.

Employers who fail to adhere to this legislation are requested to make an annual contribution for every person with disability they should be employing. This contribution is capped at €10,000 per employer. The full yearly contributory amount has come into force in 2017, as can be viewed from the table below:

• 2015

  800 per person (capped at €10,000)

• 2016

  800 per person (capped at €10,000)

• 2017

  2400 per person (capped at €10,000)

If in 2016 employers had not satisfied the quota for the respective calendar year, they will become immediately liable to pay the contributions for both calendar years (2015 and 2016).

An employer who employs a person with disability will be exempt from paying the employer’s share of social security contributions for such employee and may also be eligible to claim a fiscal incentive equivalent to 25% of the disabled person’s basic wage up to a maximum of €4,500 for each person with disability. Employers benefiting from the Access to Employment Scheme (A2E) will not be eligible to benefit from the referred fiscal incentive.

On 28th April 2016, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) acknowledging the financial and tax incentives granted at employers to favour employment of registered disabled persons, has been signed between the Employment and Training Corporation (Jobsplus), Malta Employers Association and Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.

Further information on the MoU can be found here.