NY Times Article: Why Are Lesbians Earning More Money Than Heterosexual Women?
Do Lesbians Earn More Than Heterosexual Women?
By JENNIFER SARANOW SCHULTZMost people are familiar with the pay gap between women and men, but here’s a gap you may not have been aware of. According to a recent post on the blog BoingBoing, lesbian women are paid more than heterosexual women.
According to the research the site pointed to, lesbians make about 6 percent more than heterosexual women when factors like race, education, profession, location and number of children are accounted for.
Why does this gap exist? The BoingBoing writer Maggie Koerth-Baker offers up a number of theories, including that heterosexual women may expect that they will end up with husbands or partners who will earn more than they will. As a result, they will be the ones to make career sacrifices, so they invest less in making themselves attractive to the labor market in the first place, a theory she notes was tested in a 2009 study covered in a recent Big Think blog post.
Among the other theories Ms. Koerth-Baker offers: lesbian women may be more likely to negotiate salaries in the first place.
Why do you think this pay gap exists?
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