(GayWebSource.com – Gay News & Press Network) – Posted by Michael Lamb – Echelon Magazine
Approximately 66,000 LGBT workers in South Carolina are vulnerable to employment discrimination absent state or federal legal protections, according to a new report co-authored by Amira Hasenbush, Jim Kepner Law and Policy Fellow; Gregory Davis, Gleason/Kettel Fellow; and Christy Mallory, Senior Counsel at the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute. Four localities in South Carolina prohibit public sector employment discrimination against LGBT people, yet 82 percent of the state’s workforce is not covered by one of these local ordinances. Currently none of South Carolina’s LGBT-inclusive local ordinances prohibit discrimination in private employment. Even within the localities providing discrimination protections, the scope of coverage varies from place to place, leaving a patchwork of protections.
“A state-wide law prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity would not burden state agencies,” said Hasenbush. “Most likely, the cost of enforcing complaints filed under the law could be absorbed into the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission’s existing budget.”
Key findings from the report include:
- Several recent instances of employment discrimination against LGBT people in South Carolina have been documented in the media, court cases and reports to legal organizations; these include reports from a public safety employee, a student worker and a construction employee.
- Census data show that in South Carolina, the median income of men in same-sex couples is 28 percent lower than men in different sex marriages. Disparities in wages are one way that discrimination has been measured.
- Approximately 82 percent of South Carolina’s workforce is not covered by a local ordinance prohibiting public employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and approximately 88 percent of the workforce is not covered by a local ordinance that prohibits public employment discrimination based on gender identity. None of South Carolina’s population is covered by a local ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the private sector.
- A statewide non-discrimination law would result in approximately 31 additional complaints being filed with the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission each year.
Because the number of complaints filed with the Commission from year to year varies by more than 31, costs of enforcing the additional complaints could most likely be absorbed into the existing budget. A conservatively high estimate suggests that enforcement would cost the state $23,000 annually; only 1.4 percent of the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission’s budget in fiscal year 2011-2012.
Findings from the South Carolina 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 national survey of transgender people to date reported having experienced harassment or mistreatment at work, and 47 percent reported having been discriminated against in hiring, promotion, or job retention because of their gender identity.
The full study can be viewed here: http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/South-Carolina-ND-Feb-2014.pdf
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