Fines for ignoring inclusion: Ukrainian employers will pay billions for failure to comply with the norms

In 2025, Ukrainian companies faced significant financial sanctions for failure to comply with the requirements for employing people with disabilities. The total amount of fines accrued reached 2.76 billion hryvnias, which indicates the scale of the problem in the field of labor inclusion.

According to a study conducted by the Opendatabot service, fines were imposed on 8,697 employers. This is the number of companies that failed to meet the state-established standard for providing jobs for people with disabilities.

Analytics show that these 8,697 employers make up about 10% of the total number of enterprises that were required to comply with the relevant requirements at the end of the year. For comparison, in 2023 the share of such violators was much higher — 17.5%. At the same time, before the start of the full-scale war, this indicator remained at the level of only 2.5%, which demonstrates significant changes in the dynamics of fulfilling social obligations by business.

In total, in 2025, 88,705 companies with at least 8 people employed fell under the standard. It is such enterprises that are obliged to create jobs for people with disabilities. At the same time, the number of such companies decreased by 2% compared to 2024, which may be due to changes in the economic structure and labor market.

Of particular note is the increase in the average fine. If in previous years the financial burden was lower, now the average amount of sanctions is 317 thousand hryvnias per employer. This is 20% more than a year earlier, which indicates increased liability for violations of labor legislation in this area.

Thus, the employment situation for people with disabilities in Ukraine remains difficult, despite some improvement in the percentage of violators. The increase in fines and increased state control should encourage businesses to more actively integrate the principles of inclusion into their personnel policies.