According to a study published in “Journal of Population Economics”, LGBTQI + people face considerable wage gaps in the workplace.
In an article published in the Journal of Population Economics and named “Sexual orientation and income: a meta-analysis”, researchers from Anglia Ruskin University, UK, looked at issues of pay inequality and discrimination. More precisely, the researchers observed on a large scale the differences in wages according to the declared sexual orientation of the employees.
To do this, they drew on some 25 articles published between 2012 and 2020 in states in Europe, North America and Australia. The findings were unprecedented: according to the article published in the Journal of Population Economics, queer men would be paid less than their heterosexual male colleagues.
Gay men earn 6.8% less than their heterosexual colleagues
The analysis points out that bisexuals would earn on average 10.3% less than heterosexual men. On the side of bisexual women, this is also the case with lesser consequences, but difficult to ignore. They would earn 5.1% less than their heterosexual colleagues. Gay men, meanwhile, are reportedly earning 6.8% less than their male colleagues.
Nick Drydakis, author of this study, also warns about this pay gap: “The persistence of wage penalties for gay men, but also for bisexual men and women, in the face of anti-discrimination policies is a source of concern.”
What about lesbians in all of this?
While heterosexual men generally earn a better living than their gay or bisexual colleagues, lesbians earn more than their heterosexual female colleagues. But how to explain that, unlike straight men with their gay colleagues, heterosexual women earn less than their lesbian colleagues? According to the report of Journal of Population Economics, this would be due to preconceived ideas, but also to positive discrimination.
Wages could, in fact, be fixed by “stereotypically characterizing lesbians and demonstrating leadership.” Not to mention the popular belief that lesbians are less likely to have a family life and therefore have more time to focus on their careers. Prejudices die hard.