The labor force status of transgender men and women

ABSTRACT

This study uses data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey to explore the labor force status of transgender men and women. The data suggest that transgender individuals tend to have higher unemployment rates than those reported elsewhere for the general U.S. population. Differences in the distributions of labor force statuses of transgender men and women were found; women were more likely to be out of the labor force, while men were more likely to be employed. Multinomial logit analysis revealed both similarities and differences in the effects of characteristics that influence labor force status of transgender men and women. In particular, the ability of other people to identify transgender individuals as such increased the odds of both transgender men and women being out of the labor force rather than employed. State laws prohibiting employment discrimination against transgender individuals increased the odds of transgender men being out of the labor force rather than employed, while no significant effect of such laws on transgender women was found.

KEYWORDS:

• Employment
• gender identity
• labor force status
• transgender
• unemployment

Notes

1. A cisgender individual is one whose self-identity is in agreement with the gender assigned at birth. The fact that this paper discusses only cisgender and transgender people is not meant to deny the existence of other possibilities including, but not limited to genderless, gender-neutral, or gender-fluid individuals.

2. The reader is reminded that gender identity is different from sexual orientation; gender identity refers to whether an individual feels that he or she is a male or a female, while sexual orientation indicates to whom the individual is sexually attracted.

3. It should be noted that when the terms man/male or woman/female are used, they refer to the individual's current gender identity, not the gender assigned at birth.

4. Information for September 2008 is provided here because it is the month of completion for most of the questionnaires for the transgender survey data used in this study. February 2009 is when the last of the surveys were completed.

5. Income other than one's own earnings, sometimes called simply other income, includes both partner's earnings and nonlabor income. Nonlabor income refers to income other than wage/salary earnings and is derived from sources such as interest, dividends, disability insurance, Social Security, and retirement payments.

6. Respondents who were identified not as transgender but rather as gender-nonconforming or as cross-dressers were not used in the current analysis. Insofar as transgender individuals may have different labor force experiences from gender-nonconforming and cross-dressing individuals, focusing only on transgender people makes it possible to more clearly isolate the effects of those experiences.

7. Previous research has found that income other than the individual's earned income also influences whether that individual can afford to be out of the labor force or remain unemployed and continue to search for a job. Unfortunately, however, the data set is weak concerning income variables. It includes only household income and it is not possible to determine whether the income is that of the respondent or another household member. Furthermore, it is not possible to separate earnings from other income. Consequently, the household income variable was not used in this analysis. The data indicate neither the age of the children nor whether they reside with the respondent; that would have provided information concerning need for parental attention, which would reduce the likelihood of working. The survey also did not collect information on occupation.

8. Like labor force status, education had three categories: bachelor's degree, post–bachelor's degree, and no bachelor's degree (the last of which serves as the reference category in the multinomial logit analysis).

9. The work by Hedjazi et al. (2013) was a small-scale study (n = 44) of individuals who were referred to the Forensic Medical Center in Shiraz, Iran, for sex-reassignment surgery.

10. Grant et al. (2011) reported that 52% of transgender women and 17% of transgender men were parents. Halle (2002) indicated that the percentages of U.S. women and men who have ever had a biological child were 74 and 65, respectively. While the U.S figures are not directly comparable, since they do not take adoption into consideration, they do suggest that cisgender individuals are more likely than transgender individuals to be parents.

11. It is recognized that some transgender individuals have child-rearing and/or financial responsibility for children such as grandchildren and adoptees. However, if these situations are relatively few, the observed pattern would not be substantially altered.

12. Women's later peak in the labor force participation rate is consistent with findings for the United States as a whole. However, the peaks for the general population occur later, between age 35 and 44 for men and between 45 and 54 for women (Blau et al., 2014).