Gay men who work in management and male-dominated blue-collar careers make less money than their straight counterparts, according to a study released today by the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics.
According to the research, men who live with other men earn 23% less than married men and 9% less than unmarried straight men who cohabit with women.
Employer-employee bias was cited as the most prevalent reason for discrimination against gay men in the workplace, though the authors also noted HIV stigma and consumer bias as reasons for the income disparity.
"If customers prefer to interact with heterosexual employees, the owner will act on the customer's taste for discrimination," the authors said.
The researchers did not find that lesbians experience similar discrimination in the labor market. While they are still prone to experience discrimination in the workplace, lesbians are perceived as career-focused and less likely to leave their jobs to raise children than heterosexual women. According to the study, 18.1% of lesbians have children, compared with 49.4% of straight women.
"Employers could reasonably infer that a lesbian applicant or current employee will have a stronger attachment to the labor force than will a heterosexual woman," the authors wrote. (The Advocate)
