Comments on: Gay Men Earn 23% Less Pay Than Married Men

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Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:47:56 +0000

[...] gay men earn 23% less pay than married men – although, as Sasha points out, the study isn’t exactly the most rigorous ever, it still brings up an important issue [...]

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Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:56:52 +0000

[...] Sasha at Consumerism Commentary writes about how a recent study by the Journal of Labor Research indicates that gay men earn 23% less than married men. [...]

By: Sasha

Sasha — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 06:11:43 +0000

Dong,

I agree about the study–I feel they could have structured it and analyzed it differently and had it be much more impactful. However, I’m glad to see them bringing the issue to light regardless.

By: dong

dong — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:08:45 +0000

I definitely think gay men are discriminated against, but I also hate studies that try to draw easy conclusions. There are so many additional questions and factors. I think one of the things that may differ significantly in homosexual realtionships vs. heterosexuals one is the division of labor. In a traditional married couple, the woman takes care of the home so the husband can concentrate on his career. It seems unclear to me if there’s this dynamic amongst homosexual male couples or not.

I also find the comparison of lesbian couples just to heterosexual women somewhat an inaccurate comparison. Really it should be the total income of the couples that should be compared. Are lesbian couples making more or less than corresponding heterosexual couple? I guess this goes with the males couples as well.

Interesting study, but as always I find citing just the resultant statistics less useful than looking at what is a really complicated issue.

By: plonkee

plonkee — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:15:47 +0000

I wonder if there are significant differences in the types of jobs that gay men are taking up. I know that this is has an impact on why women are paid less.

More research clearly needs to be done. We should have got past discrimination on anything other than ability to do the job now.

By: curiousgeorge

curiousgeorge — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:21:03 +0000

If you think gay men earn less than married men, the income figures for transgender (”MTF”) men are much lower. At a transgender job fair in San Francisco last year, 53% reported annual incomes less than $30K.

2006 Job Fair

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:40:28 +0000

yup, raises too many questions. Causal relationships seems to have gone out the window in this study.