‘A Broken Bargain’ Report on Workplace Discrimination Released by Leading LGBT Organizations

The National Center for Transgender Equality joins a group of national LGBT equality and labor organizations to release a groundbreaking report, Broken Bargain: Discrimination, Fewer Benefits and More Taxes for LGBT Workers. The new report is the most up to date publication on the LGBT workforce revealing:

• Approximately 5.4 million LGBT workers live in 93% of all U.S. counties.
• Thirty-seven percent of LGBT adults have a child, making family benefits a necessity.
• LGBT people are at higher risk of poverty than non-LGBT people. Fifteen percent of transgender people have a household income under $10,000, compared to 4% of the population as a whole. Same-sex couples raising children are more than twice as likely to have household incomes near the poverty line compared to different-sex parents (21% vs. 9%).
• LGBT workers are slightly more racially/ethnically diverse than the U.S. population as a whole.

NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling noted that transgender workers face a unique set of workplace challenges that may lead to the disproportionately high rate of unemployment. "The demand for transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination laws is as much a business case as it is a moral case. Employers struggle to keep great employees, and trans employees are twice as likely as the general public to hold advanced degrees, yet have twice the rate of unemployment,” Keisling said. “Instituting laws and policies that protect highly qualified transgender workers is good for everyone--employers and employees.”

To address these issues, NCTE advocates for a variety of local state and federal policies including the passage of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), and the issuance of a Presidential Executive Order barring discrimination by federal contractors. “A Broken Bargain” comes at the same time as a new poll was issued today by Small Business Majority. According to the survey, more than two-thirds of entrepreneurs surveyed agree that federal law should prohibit employment discrimination against LGBT people. In addition to federal law, 7 in 10 business owners in states without such policies also agree their state should have a law prohibiting this discrimination. ”A Broken Bargain” was authored by The Movement Advancement Project, the Center for American Progress, and the Human Rights Campaign, and developed in partnership with the Small Business Majority, the National Center for Transgender Equality, Freedom to Work, the National Partnership for Women & Families, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, and the Service Employees International Union. Read the full report esta página.