From LGB to LGBTQ+: Earnings and the institutionalization of Sexual and Gender Identities

Bob Langereis , University of Groningen
Diederik Boertien, Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (CED)
Fernanda Fortes de Lena, Centre d'Estudis Demografics (CED)
Sabi Bercovich Szulmajster, Centre d'Estudis Demografics (CED)

Social stratification research often focuses on (binary) gender, class and ethnicity as characteristics that stratify people’s lives. Recently, researchers have started drawing attention to sexual orientation as a characteristic that shapes people’s opportunities in life. LGB people earn less than heterosexual men, but often more than heterosexual women. However, we believe that previous research has underestimated the role of sexual and gender identity in earnings by only studying a limited set of sexual identities. We aim to address this limitation by including sexual identities that go beyond lesbian, gay and bisexual identities, as well as trans* and non-binary people. We use data from a representative survey in Norway that is complemented with earnings data from administrative records on 9,761 individuals out of which 508 have a non-heterosexual identity and 89 persons are trans* or non-binary. Sexual and gender identities that further challenge norms regarding sexuality and gender, such as queer, pansexual, asexual, trans* and non-binary are all related to strong earnings penalties, possibly also once compared to gay and lesbian individuals. Because identities available to people change over time and space, using measures that only capture a restricted number of identities complicates comparisons across contexts, especially if people with emerging identities are particularly disadvantaged in the labor market.

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 Presented in Session P3. Migration, Economics, Policies, History