According to a report published in the Economic and Labour Relations Review, gay men may be being paid significantly less than their straight counterparts.
The article, entitled ‘Sexual orientation-based wage gaps in Australia: The potential role of discrimination and personality’ is the first to establish notable wage gaps according to sexual orientation in Australia.
The report states that gay men face an unexplained negative wage gap of 8-18%, while gay women get paid up to 13% more than their heterosexual counterparts.
Andrea La Nauze, the report’s author, hypothesized possible causes for the discrepancy. “Psychologists have established that people commonly hold beliefs about how the personality traits of gay men and lesbians differ from those of heterosexual men and women.” she wrote.
“One such stereotype is that gay men are less aggressive and more emotional than heterosexual men, and that gay women are more aggressive than heterosexual women.”
Findings released on Thursday indicate that the gender wage gap in Australia has reached 18.8%, putting women at a record disadvantage.
The report has shed light on a topic that was previously little examined in Australia. The report also examined whether the wage gap based on sexual orientation could be based on personality traits, however it found that this was not the case:
“The finding is that personality traits and returns to them do not differ along lines of sexual orientation. Gay men in particular suffer a substantial unexplained wage penalty in the workplace. Such unexplained differences suggest that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, though unlawful, may exist in Australia.”
OIP Staff
