Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecommunications billionaire who ranks as the world’s second-richest person, is pledging to hire workers with disabilities and asking others to join him.

Slim and Anthony Kennedy Shriver, who founded the "Best Buddies" nonprofit organization to advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, are introducing a global campaign that seeks to highlight the benefits of hiring workers with conditions such as Down syndrome and cerebral palsy.

Celebrities including actress Cheryl Hines and former Olympic track and field athlete Carl Lewis have already signed the pledge.

About 85 percent of the almost 5 million US adults with disabilities didn’t have a paid job last year, according to data cited by the organization. A report produced by the "Institute for Corporate Productivity" this year shows that workers with disabilities tend to be highly-motivated and dependable and improve efficiency among colleagues.

"We think that it’s very important for society to have these people integrated to economic activity," Slim said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. "We believe that companies should do that but also federal and state governments."

Slim, who amassed his fortune by recognizing the depressed value of assets during the country’s financial crisis in the 1980s, employs more than 170,000 people just through America Movil, his Mexico City-based company with operations across South America, the US, and the Caribbean.

Slim’s Fortune

His fortune stands at $81.2 billion, just behind Bill Gates on a list of the world’s richest people, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He controls a handful of other companies in Mexico, in industries from banking to mining and retail.

The 74-year-old billionaire has been praised and criticized for his approach to philanthropy. He has said he won’t join the "Giving Pledge" started by Warren Buffett and Gates to encourage the world’s wealthiest people to give away half of their wealth to charity. Slim has said it’s more important to instead develop companies that can take people out of poverty through employment.

When asked about the current debate on minimum wage in Mexico, Slim declined comment.

He said that continued investment would create jobs and stimulate economic activity. "Not just in Mexico, but worldwide, there are many bad salaries that aren’t enough to make a living," he stated.

Another of his campaigns introduced this year seeks to integrate about half a million young immigrants into the US workforce through the "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" program. The same website offers job-training videos for sought-after professions - from electricians to bank tellers.