Sunday, October 28, 2007

Gay Men Get Paid Less Than Straight Men

A new study shows that men in same-sex cohabitating couples get paid 23% less than married men. Well, that's not fair. What else isn't fair is how the researchers completely neglect the gender wage gap.

Lesbians are not discriminated against when compared with heterosexual women, the US study found. The report's authors conclude that while negative attitudes toward lesbians could affect them, lesbians may benefit from the perception that they are more career-focused and less likely to leave the labour market to raise children than heterosexual women.

Not so! First of all, women in general, gay or straight, already earn 23% less than White men, and the wage gap increases for most women of color. Furthermore, unmarried women make about 56% of what married men make. And lesbians can't get married in this country, so they make up a part of the unmarried female population. So while it doesn't look like sexual orientation accounts for wage discrimination against women, women in general are still getting a raw deal, and gay men aren't getting any more discriminated against than all women.

2 comments:

Mike D said...

But you would agree gay men are still being discriminated against, right?

FEMily! said...

Of course. But my main point is that the researchers make it like lesbians don't get discriminated against in the workplace. They do because they're women.

I didn't mean for discrimination against gay men to get lost in what I posted. Sorry!