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Gender & Sexuality Employment Discrimination

Gender

Equal Rights Amendment

Currently, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 serves as the federal law that protects individuals from workplace discrimination based upon sex. As workplacefairness.org states, “this law makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate against individuals in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment (such as promotions, raises, and other job opportunities) because of their sex. The laws of most states also make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex.”

However, there is no constitutional amendment protecting people on the basis of gender or sex. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) of 1964 was the closest amendment to get passed barring discrimination on the basis of sex. After white women earned the right to vote due to the repeal of the 19th amendment in 1920, feminists began focusing on passing the ERA. Yet it failed to pass in 1982 because it only received support fro 35 states when it needed support from 38. Liberal feminists argue that such an amendment would decrease gender-based discrimination significantly. Some radical feminists (and other feminists) are not so convinced. They claim the amendment can be harmful because it "would require women to be drafted into military combat any time men were conscripted, abolish the presumption that the husband should support his wife and take away Social Security benefits for wives and widows. It would also give federal courts and the federal government enormous new powers to reinterpret every law that makes a distinction based on gender, such as those related to marriage, divorce and alimony." In other words, this amendment can create loopholes that only benefit (at best) the most privileged women.

Gender Wage Gap

Women now earn a majority of college degrees ; however, the wage gap persists. Statistics from 2014 (the most recent year for which data are available) reveal that full-time, year-round working women’s annual median wages were $39,621, whereas men’s annual median wages were $50,383. As the Center for American Progress states, “the difference between men’s and women’s median wages—$10,762—could cover more than 14 months of median U.S. rent in 2014 or the average cost of more than one year of full-time, center-based care for an infant.” This adds up to about over $430,480 of lost wages of a 40-year career. In 2014, The American Association of University Women (AAUW) found that the gender pay gap also widens with age. The association found that, "women typically earn about 90 percent of what men are paid until they hit 35. After that median earnings for women are typically 76–81 percent of what men are paid." As the Center for American Progress reports, “these differences are not purely the result of 'women’s choices'. They reflect significant structural and economic realities that limit women’s abilities to compete with men in the labor force, resulting in lower pay."

Gender Wage Gap by Race

In 2013, the Center for American Progress found that “Hispanic women made 54% of white men's wages, African American women made 64% of white men's wages, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women made 65% of white men's wages, American Indian and Alaska Native women made 59% of white men's wages, Asian American 90%. To put these numbers into perspective, “Latinas lose a total of $1,007,080 and African American women lose $877,480 over a 40-year career.” As a result, women of color’s retirement security tend to have around 50 percent smaller account balances in defined contribution plans.

These gaps are contributed, in part, by the fact that many women of color do not have access to working jobs that have long hours, which are the jobs that usually pay more money. In fact, “only 15.5 percent of African American women and 16.9 percent of Hispanic women work 45 or more hours per week, while 25 percent of white women are able to work in such high-hour jobs.”

Gender Wage Gap by Occupation

According to data released in February 2015 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, men make more than women in all but one profession: stock clerks and order fillers, making 101.98 percent of their male counterparts. This is an arguably sharp rise in the gender pay gap, as data released by the US Census Bureau in 2013 revealed that women earned more than men in only nine professions: producers and directors; cleaners of vehicles and equipment; wholesale and retail buyers, except farm products; transportation security screeners; social and human service assistants; special education teachers; transportation, storage, and distribution managers; diswashers and counselors.

Around the World

No country in the entire world has closed the gender wage gap. Additionally, there is no clear consensus as to when the wage gap will close. In 2014, the World Economic Forum, estimated it is going to take another 81 years for the gender gap to close. In 2015, the World Economic Forum predicted the wage gap will take another 118 years to close. In 2016, the same forum predicted that it will take 170 years to close.

Trans Wage Gap

According to the MAP and CAP report, trans people are nearly four times more likely to have a yearly household income below $10,000 (15 percent vs. 4 percent of the non-trans population).Throughout 2008, trans people were unemployed at twice the rate of the general population (roughly between 10 percent and 14 percent). Additionally, “Asian American/Pacific Islander and Latino trans folks nearly six times as likely to be living in poverty as their API or Latino cisgender counterparts.”

Trans Employment Discrimination

In 2009, the Transgender Law Center collected data from 2005 using a non-probability sample. The findings revealed that 70% of trans people reported discrimination/harassment over the lifetime. From 2008-2009, researcher J. Grant collected data from 6,450 transgender people across the US, and Grant found 78% of trans people had experienced at least one form of harassment or mistreatment and 47% discriminated against in hiring, promotion, or job retention. One Colorado collected data in 2010 from LGBT people in Colorado using a non-probability sample. The organization found that 52% of transgender respondents reported experiencing discrimination harassment over the lifetime. This discrimination comes, in part, from employers routinely refusing to hire trans women who cannot "pass".

While no detailed wage and income analyses of the transgender population have been conducted to date, six non-probability surveys of the transgender population conducted between 1999 and 2005 found that 6%-60% of respondents reported being unemployed, and 22%-64% of the employed population earned less than $25,000 per year.77 Transgender respondents to a 2011 national survey were unemployed at twice the rate of the general population, and 15% reported a household income of under $10,000 per year.78 The unemployment rate for transgender people of color was nearly four times the national unemployment rate.79 In response to a 2010 survey, 25% of transgender respondents in Colorado reported a yearly income of less than $10,000.80"

40% of transgender respondents were not open about their sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace because they feared for their personal safety.64

Sexuality

According to a 2011 report by UCLA's Williams Institute, between 16% - 43% of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender workers have experienced either being fired, denied promotions or harassment due to their sexual orientation or gender identification. Additionally, only 20 states in the United States of America prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace. Wisconsin and New Hampshire prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation but not gender identity.

Non-Discrimination Laws

As of 2016, only twenty states protect against discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Idaho are the only states with campaigns working in 2016 to amend existing state anti-discrimination laws to protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

In 1973, the District of Columbia was the first major district to protect sexual orientation in all employment. In 1975, Pennsylvania became the first state to protect sexual orientation in state employment. In 1982, Wisconsin became the first state to protect sexual orientation in all employment. In 2016, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Louisiana all passed protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in all employment.

Since they support the ERA, liberal feminists may argue that non-discrimination laws will offer effective protections for LGBT people in the workplace. However, radical queer and trans activists have noted that anti-discrimination laws might not since they neither address how power operates daily nor dismantle the prison industrial complex.

Gay and Bisexual Men

The Williams Institute conducted a cross-analysis of 12 studies regarding wages and sexual orientation in the United States. When controlling for education, race, occupation, and years of work experience, the report finds that gay and bisexual men earn 10 percent to 32 percent less than heterosexual men with similar qualifications. In almost all states, census data analyses suggest that men in same-sex couples earn less than married men.

Lesbian and Queer Women

While lesbian and bisexual women earn the same or sometimes more than heterosexual women (according to an analysis by the Williams Institute), lesbian workers still earn less than both heterosexual and gay men. Additionally, same-sex couples between women on average earn the same as or more than women in opposite-sex marriages. However, they still earn less than both coupled gay men or men in opposite-sex marriages.

Impact on Mental and Physical Health

Leading health departments such as the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and the U.S. Department of Health have found that homophobic prejudice, stigma, and discrimination in the workplace has suggested to be responsible for some of the psychological and physical harm experienced by LGB employees. For example, in 2009, 83% of heterosexual respondents of a survey conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health indicated they were in excellent or very good health, whereas only 78% of gay men or lesbians, 74% of bisexual respondents, and 67% of transgender respondents indicated they were in excellent or very good health.The stress faced by LGB workers has demonstrated links to personal health problems such as immune function, AIDS progression, and perceived physical well-being. LGBT respondents perceived discrimination or fear of discrimination have been linked to higher rates of mental illness such as psychiatric disorders and depression. In fact, a LGBT respondents of 2009 national survey reported avoiding work-related social events as a result of working in an environment that was not accepting of LGBT people. On the other hand, supervisor, coworker, and organizational support for LGB employees demonstrate having a positive impact on employees in terms of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and outness at work.