NEW STUDY: PENNSYLVANIA AND 174,000 LGBT WORKERS

Nov 15, 2013
Gay Media & Press Network

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LACK PROTECTIONS AGAINST ONGOING EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION

Nearly 70 percent of workforce left uncovered by patchwork of inconsistent local ordinances.

Pennsylvania’s 174,000 LGBT workers are vulnerable to employment discrimination absent state or federal legal protections, according to a new report authored by Christy Mallory, former Reid Rasmussen Fellow of Law and Policy and Amira Hasenbush, Jim Kepner Law and Policy Fellow, at the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute. While 33 Pennsylvania localities provide some protections, 69 percent of the state’s workforce could suffer discrimination without recourse based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Pennsylvania teachers, factory workers and law enforcement officers have all faced workplace discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Mallory. “Uniform legal protections could provide more consistent and stronger recourse for the state’s workers at minimal administrative cost to the government.”

Key findings from the report include:

  • Recent cases and complaints in Pennsylvania document that discrimination against LGBT people is ongoing; this includes discrimination against law enforcement, teachers, and other public servants.
  • The median income of men in same-sex couples in Pennsylvania is almost 20 percent lower than that of men in different sex marriages. Disparities in wages, such as the gender wage gap, are a traditional way to measure employment discrimination.
  • Campus climate surveys from state universities reflect negative attitudes toward LGBT people.  A 2012 survey at Bloomsburg University found that the most common basis for behavior that created an exclusionary, intimidating, offensive, and/or hostile working or learning environment was sexual orientation.
  • A statewide non-discrimination law would result in approximately 82 additional complaints being filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission each year.
  • The cost of enforcing the additional complaints would be negligible.  At most, enforcement would cost approximately $228,000 annually; which represents 2.4 percent of the Human Relations Commission’s budget in fiscal year 2011-2012.
  • 69 percent of the Pennsylvania population is not covered by local ordinances –and even those that are –these local ordinances are not so great as the proposed state law.

Findings from the Pennsylvania report are consistent with national data. A 2013 Pew Research Center survey found that 21 percent of LGBT respondents had been treated unfairly by an employer in hiring, pay, or promotions. In 2010, 78 percent of respondents to the largest survey of transgender people reported having experienced harassment or mistreatment at work.

“Many Pennsylvania employers have already decided that inclusive LGBT workplace policies are good for business,” said co-author Hasenbush. At least 139 companies headquartered in Pennsylvania prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, including 37 Fortune 1000 companies, and at least 40 companies prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.

The full report can be found here: http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/PennsylvaniaNDReport-Nov-2013.pdf

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