49. Let's Shatter the LGBTQ+ Wage Gap

Snarky Opener (0:00)

Sure, gays without kids may have more disposable income, but those therapy bills from growing up gay really add up.

Episode Introduction (0:27)

Hello, my LGBTQuties, and welcome back to another episode of A Jaded Gay. I'm Rob Loveless and, today, I'm a non-jaded gay because Zac Efron has changed my life.

And I know most gays claim that, but it's for real. So, I know I'm behind on the times, but I recently watched Down to Earth with Zac Efron on Netflix, and there's two seasons.

The first one, he's throughout Europe. The second season takes place in Australia. I know it's been out a few years, but I literally just got around to it.

And I just feel like I am trying to become a better person now because of that show.

So right off the bat, as soon as I saw the episode where he was in France and they were talking about water, I immediately switched it up.

I actually bought some mineral water in glass bottles, because plastic is terrible for the environment. So, I'm drinking mineral water now to get the minerals my body needs.

There was also an episode talking about longevity in life and how to achieve that through a healthy diet. So, I'm actually cutting down my protein content.

You know, I like lifting weights. Well, okay, let me backtrack. I don't like it, but I do because it's what I need to do.

But I do lift weights, and obviously, in any type of fitness culture, you tend to hear that you should be basing your meals around protein content, protein content, protein content.

So that's what I did. Whenever I ate, I based it around protein. But surprisingly, most people actually get too much protein.

So, I've been looking for some areas in my diet to improve where I can cut out some protein sources, add in some more carbs and some more vegetables, just be a little bit healthier.

And it's only been a couple weeks, but I'm planning on sticking to it.

And I do just feel better in general, and a little bit more aware of how I can try to reduce my carbon footprint and work to buy things that are more sustainably sourced and that are more recyclable compared to plastic.

So just trying to improve and help the environment one day at a time.

The LGBTQ+ Wage Gap (1:56) 

But moving on from green sustainability to another type of green- and I mean money-we are talking about the LGBTQ+ wage gap today. And yes, this is going to be another toughy topic.

Not going to be super fun, but it's important to talk about.

And you know, I think a lot of people have this false idea that gay men in particular tend to be fabulous and cultured and have all this money to spend traveling the world.

And for starters, due to internalized homophobia, gay men may have more of a drive to be successful as a form of validation, so they may have higher-paying careers like doctors or lawyers.

And this has changed as the years have gone on, but for a long time, if you were gay, the idea of having a family seemed far-fetched.

So, because of those factors, naturally you'd assume someone would have more money. But really that's not necessarily the case.

There's factors at play that are causing a wage gap for LGBTQ+ people, which we'll talk about in a minute.

But first, tarot time.

Tarot (2:49) 

So, the card for this episode is the Nine of Wands. And as we've typically talked about, Wands is a suit in the Minor Arcana.

So, it's about things that we can do in our day-to-day lives. It's tied to the element of fire. Wands typically represents creativity, passion, sometimes sexuality.

And in numerology, the number nine means that we're close to finishing out a cycle. We're coming towards the end of something which is good.

So, we need to keep pushing ourselves to get to the end of that completion of the cycle. And it is masculine energy, so it's very action-oriented in nature.

And when we pull this card, the key meaning we're getting is that we need to be persistent and self-reliant.

And when it comes to persisting, obviously, that can be tough, so we have to have the courage to push ahead, even if it might be testing us.

And during that process, we also need to have up healthy boundaries, so that way we can achieve what we're working towards and what we're pushing ourselves towards.

And basically, this card, it really encompasses all the events, struggles, and triumphs we've been dealing with up until this point in our lives.

So that could apply to a lot, whether it's relationships, finances, career, spirituality, whatever. And whatever that challenge may be, you know, we might feel exhausted.

We might be thinking, why are we continuing to push ourselves if we've tried so hard and we're not there yet? We haven't achieved what we wanted to yet.

But really, this card's indicating to keep pushing because we are almost there. You know, the sun is on the horizon. We need to keep pushing ourselves forward.

And really, you know, we might have to step outside our comfort zone to do that, but we can achieve what we want to achieve if we continue to rely on ourselves and push ourselves forward.

So, we need to channel that action-oriented energy and really work to inspire ourselves to keep moving.

And while that might be scary, this card is an assurance that eventually we will prosper and achieve whatever we're looking to.

The Economic Status of Same-Sex Couples (4:18)

So, with that in mind, let's kick it off by taking a look at the economic status of same-sex couples.

In January 2022, the Brookings Institution published an article that takes a look at the Census Bureau's information from 2015 to 2019 on same-gender households. A

d they found that, on average, same-gender married couples have higher rates of dual employment and have higher median incomes compared to opposite-gender couples.

Now the data isn't saying that the higher rates of dual employment equal a higher median income, but I could see that being the cause and effect.

And in looking at the data for prime-age family income by couple type, here's some quick stats:

• Same-gender couples who are male earned on average $107,200
• Different gender couples earned on average $97,000
• And then same-gender couples who are female earned on average $95,720

And it's been assumed that the reason why same-gender couples who are female earn less on average are because of the gender wealth gap.

In fact, one of the more recent articles I found said that women earn 83 cents for every dollar men earn.

Now those median incomes, those are based on married couples, but that doesn't account for LGBTQ+ individuals and the community at large.

In fact, a 2021 Gallup poll found that 47.7% of American adults are married to opposite-sex partners, while less than 1% of American adults are married to a same-sex spouse.

The Economic Status of LGBTQ+ People (5:37)

So, in looking at the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, and not specifically couples married to a same-sex partner, The Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research published an infographic in 2019 on the LGBTQ wealth gap.

And some of the findings and data were from 2017 studies. And I know that may seem a little dated, but there's traditionally been a lack of research on this topic.

Anyway, on average, LGBTQ+ workers earn less than heterosexual and cisgender peers.

In 2017, lesbians earned 11% less than heterosexual women. Gay men made 32% less than heterosexual men. Bisexual women earned 30% less than heterosexual peers.

And interestingly enough, bisexual men earned slightly more. And trans people were four times more likely to earn less than $10,000 a year than the general population.

Additionally, LGBTQ+ consumers were compared to the general population:

• 7% less likely to have a savings account
• 5% less likely to have a 401(k) or retirement plan
• And 12% less likely to have an individual retirement account

And this infographic also asserts that despite higher educational attainment, LGBTQ+ people are more frequently underemployed, receive lesser compensation, and are less able to save or purchase assets.

And ultimately, LGBTQ+ people are more likely to live in poverty compared to their heterosexual peers, with 21.6% of LGBTQ people living in poverty compared to 15.7% of straight people.

And bringing things up to speed, in April 2022, the Social Science Research Network published a paper by Marc Folch titled The LGBTQ+ Gap: Recent Estimates for Young Adults in the United States.

Using data from a nationally representative sample of bachelor's degree recipients, Folch found that sexual and gender minorities experience 12% lower earnings compared to their straight peers a year after graduation.

And that gap, it jumps to 22% lower earnings 10 years after graduation.

And about half of this gap can be attributed to LGBTQ+ graduates being less likely to complete a higher-paying major and therefore less likely to work in a high-paying occupation.

Demographics of the LGBTQ+ Wage Gap (7:40)

In early 2022, the HRC published an article taking a look specifically at the wage gap for LGBTQ+ workers in the United States.

In their research, they found that, on average, LGBTQ+ workers earn about 90 cents for every dollar the typical worker earns.

However, when you take a look at LGBTQ+ workers based on race, the findings are alarming. So, LGBTQ+ white workers earn 97 cents for every dollar earned by typical workers.

LGBTQ+ Hispanic workers earn 90 cents for every dollar earned. LGBTQ+ Black workers earn 80 cents for every dollar earned. LGBTQ+ Native American workers earn 70 cents for every dollar earned.

Meanwhile, LGBTQ+ Asian and Asian Pacific Islander workers earned $1 for every dollar earned by typical workers. So that's the only balance you see there.

And when looking at gender identity, LGBTQ+ men earn 96 cents for every dollar earned by typical workers. LGBTQ+ women earn 87 cents for every dollar earned.

Non-binary genderqueer, gender fluid, and Two-Spirit workers earn 70 cents for every dollar earned. Trans men earn 70 cents for every dollar earned. And trans women earn 60 cents for every dollar earned.

And when you look at the two factors combined, API LGBTQ+ women earn $1 for every dollar a typical worker earns. White LGBTQ+ women earn 96 cents for every dollar earned.

Black LGBTQ+ women earn 85 cents for every dollar earned. Native American LGBTQ+ women earn 75 cents for every dollar earned. And Hispanic LGBTQ+ women earn 72 cents for every dollar earned.

And I'm going to read an excerpt from the article's conclusion:

“Though we did not assess the underlying reasons for this disparity, it is likely that discrimination is playing a role. One-third (36%) of LGBTQ+ workers say they have experienced discrimination in the workplace, with 29% of LGBTQ+ people, 37% of Black respondents, and more than half of transgender respondents saying this discrimination had significantly impacted their financial well-being.

Of note, the wage gap between LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ people is potentially even larger than what is reported here, as the present analysis only includes full-time workers. Previous research has repeatedly found that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed relative to their straight and cisgender peers.”

And touching upon discrimination, let's jump back over to the Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research's infographic.

They state that, when LGBTQ consumers, businesses, and community groups seek products and services, they are victimized by discriminatory treatment and by unfair, deceptive, or predatory marketing practices.

In fact, a study of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from 1999 to 2015 concluded that same-sex couples were:

• Denied residential mortgages 73% more often
• Received up to 9.2% higher interest rates and fees on average
• And overpaid up to 86 million each year for their home mortgages

Early Choices & Lower Earnings Among LGBTQ+ Workers (10:32)

However, in a June 2022 BBC article titled The Big LGBTQ Wage Gap Problem, author Megan Carnegie writes that discrimination may not be the only factor impacting this wage gap.

Here's a quote:

“Research shows the pattern of lower earnings across LGBTQ+ workers is set in motion long before people are established in the workplace, through choices they make in their younger academic years and early professional lives. Once in the workplace, discrimination compounds the effect of these decisions, holding people back from progressing the same way as their heterosexual peers.”

So, what exactly are these quote-unquote early choices?

Well, for starters, a 2019 study published in the Economics of Education Review found that LGBTQ+ students in the US are less likely, in general, to finish school, and therefore less likely to go on to further their education.

And going back to Folch's paper, he found that LGBTQ+ graduates were more likely to pick majors with a higher percentage of females. Cough, cough, me majoring in communications.

Therefore, LGBTQ+ graduates are more likely to work in an occupation where there were also a higher percentage of females. And these, on average, tend to be occupations where salaries are lower.

Meanwhile, 29% of people aged between 13 and 23 who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, undefined, or asexual, chose to avoid a career in STEM because of the fears that they would be discriminated against.

That being said, it's estimated that today's STEM industries have lost up to 120,000 viable candidates due to the cumulative effects of anti-LGBTQ+ bias.

Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination in the Workplace (12:03)

Additionally, LGBTQ+ students are less likely to be in full-time employment a year after graduation.

In fact, gay or lesbian applicants in the UK are 5% less likely to be invited to an interview than heterosexual male or female applicants.

Meanwhile, in the United States, employers are more likely to view resumes from applicants who stated their sexual orientation as gay or lesbian with a more critical eye.

And in September 2021, a report titled LGBT People's Experiences of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law found that 46% of LGBTQ workers reported receiving unfair treatment at some point in their careers because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

And this discrimination includes being passed over for a job, harassed at work, denied a promotion or raise, excluded from company events, denied additional hours, or fired.

That same report found that in the year prior, nearly one in 10 LGBTQ people in the United States experienced workplace discrimination, and an estimated 9% reported being denied a job or laid off because of their orientation or identity.

Additional findings show that almost 26% of LGBTQ+ employees had been sexually harassed at work at some point in their careers, while almost 21% reported physical harassment, including being punched, hit, and beaten up on the job.

And unsurprisingly, discrimination can impact LGBTQ+ earnings in different ways, whether by delaying a worker's progression within a company or leading to more frequent job changes due to non-inclusive environments.

The COVID-19 Pandemic’s Disproportionate Effect on LGBTQ+ Workers (13:33)

And an additional factor impacting this wealth gap is the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May last year, we talked about the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate effect on the LGBTQ+ community.

So, if you haven't gone to that episode yet, give it a listen. I included the link to that in the episode description. But here are some more updated findings.

In June 2022, The Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a nonprofit research and grantmaking organization, published an article dissecting the U.S. Census Bureau’s data, which shows significant economic disparities among the LGBTQ+ community.

The US Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey began in April 2020 to monitor the impact of the pandemic and ensuing recession on US households in real-time.

But it wasn't until July 2021 that the survey began collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity.

And when it came to job loss during the pandemic, approximately 28% of LGBTQ+ respondents said they experienced some form of job loss since LGBTQ+ data collection began in July of 2021.

And this is 10% higher compared to non-LGBTQ+ respondents.

Additionally, LGBTQ+ respondents between the ages of 25 and 39 and then 40 to 54 had the highest rates of job losses, while older and non-LGBTQ+ respondents had the lowest rates.

Black and Hispanic LGBTQ+ households in the United States experienced higher rates of unemployment or wage loss at 60% and 71% respectively, between July 2020 and August 2020, compared to non-LGBTQ+ households of all races, which was 45%.

Additionally, at the start of the pandemic, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an eviction moratorium, barring landlords from evicting tenants for any reason.

And Biden tried to extend the moratorium, but the Supreme Court struck it down in September 2021, immediately putting renters across the United States back at risk of eviction.

And this can disproportionately affect the LGBTQ+ community because 41% of LGBTQ+ people and 47% of LGBTQ+ people of color rent their residences, compared to 25% of non-LGBTQ+ people.

Addressing the LGBTQ+ Wage Gap (15:34)

So obviously this is a layered issue, but what can be done to bridge the wage gap?

Well, going back to the HRC article, they explained that these are a few things employers can do to promote pay equality.

They should:

• Include employment non-discrimination policies that include both sexual orientation and gender identity across all operations
• Institute transparency policies on pay, which are a pathway to identification of pay inequalities
• Ensure benefits packages are inclusive of both legal spouses and domestic partners to prevent inequalities in benefit offerings
• Do an annual assessment of the collected pay data by sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity to ensure that companies are using the data to drive decision making

You know, for example, the formulation of leadership development programs and other policy development to combat the wage gap.

Also, policymakers should support policy and legislation that will strengthen existing protections and further combat discriminatory practices.

In March 2021, the Center for American Progress published an article listing ten essential actions policymakers could take to promote pay equality.

And I'm not going to go into all the nitty gritty policy details because I'm not a lawyer, but here are the ten items:

• Number one, issue a presidential memorandum or directive to relaunch the White House equal pay task force
• Two, reinstate the federal government's collection of pay data from employers
• Three, tackle gender and racial wage gaps within the federal workplace
• Four, launch a pay transparency initiative to improve employer accountability for pay practices and provide workers with better information
• Five, undertake efforts to reduce pay secrecy
• Six, make a budgetary commitment to significantly boost enforcement dollars
• Seven, conduct more compliance reviews of federal contractors to better ensure compliance with the law
• Eight, increase the OFCCPS' number of quote-unquote glass ceiling reviews, examining advancement opportunities for women and workers of color
• Nine, pursue economic security policies to help women remain in the workplace
• And number ten, vocally support legislative measures to strengthen equal pay protections

And with the idea of legal actions being taken to end the LGBTQ+ pay gap, I thought this quote from the BBC article referenced earlier was very interesting.

Pawel Adrjan, director of EMEA economic research at global recruitment site Indeed, says:

“Research has shown that when laws change in favour of LGBTQ+ rights, social norms tend to follow. In the US, for example, in states that legalised same-sex marriage, there was a positive impact on labour force participation of LGBT people – and the likely mechanism for that was less discrimination and less prejudice.”

Episode Closing (18:04)

So, it is essential for employers to implement zero-tolerance policies of any prejudice or harassment toward the LGBTQ+ community in the workplace.

Because, as we've gone over in this episode, the sexuality pay gap is seeded in people's early years and compounded as they move through education and into the workplace.

So multi-pronged, cross-disciplinary action is crucial to ultimately make the labor force a better place for everyone.

And bringing it back to the tarot, we have to address these obstacles head-on and keep persevering if we want a brighter future for ourselves.

Maybe we have faced discrimination in the workplace. Maybe we didn't finish our education early on because there were economic factors or discrimination at play that kept us from moving forward.

So, whatever our situation is, and again, obviously, this is easier said than done, but we need to keep pushing ourselves forward and find those opportunities for us.

And that includes really speaking up and raising your hand because I think, you know for myself, personally, I've been that person who's been afraid to speak up and ask for things that I wanted to do and be afraid to ask for opportunities.

I always felt that I needed to wait for somebody to offer me the opportunity because I'd have to earn it that way. But people can't read minds.

So, if you're not speaking up, people may not know that you're looking to advance or move ahead.

So, while it may be uncomfortable, we need to practice speaking up for ourselves and not shying away from opportunities. Again, easier said than done, and obviously, everybody's situation is different.

But when it comes to finances, the workplace, whatever it may be, we really need to find those ways to advance ourselves forward and also to support each other, our community, and support one another.

Because at the end of the day, this wage gap, it affects every member of the LGBTQ+ community, across gender, across races, across sexuality.

So, we need to be there for each other and find ways to support each other so we can work towards a more equitable future in the workplace and beyond.

Connect with A Jaded Gay (19:42)

And with that being said, thank you all for listening. I hope you enjoyed the episode. Like I said at the top, definitely a heavier subject.

Not the most fun thing to talk about, but very important to address.

If you have any questions or feedback, you can reach out to me rob@ajadedgay.com.

You can also follow the podcast on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and SoundCloud @ajadedgaypod. You can follow me, Rob Loveless, personally on Instagram @rob_loveless.

Also, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe to the show. Five stars really helps get the word out to other people to find the show and connect with the episodes. So, I'd greatly appreciate that.

And lastly, you can become a monthly supporter of the show on Patreon for as little as $1 a month, and that's @ajadedgaypod as well. So, thank you once again.

And remember, every day is all we have, so you gotta make your own happiness.

Mmm-bye.

Outtake (20:54)

You know, and this research and this research cites STEM and business. We'll cut that.