Most transgender employees (82 percent) have experienced discrimination or harassment at work at some point in their lives, according to a new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. This includes being fired, not hired, not promoted or being subjected to verbal, physical or sexual harassment because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, the report shows.
According to the new report, transgender people report taking steps to mitigate discrimination and harassment at work.
Brad Sears, founding executive director at the Williams Institute and lead author of the study, said, “Transgender people are a particularly vulnerable and marginalized group in the workplace. Many are not bringing their full selves to work and face unsupportive workplace environments, which makes them less likely to fully invest in their current employer and job.”
The study shows that about one-third of transgender employees (36 percent) are not open about being transgender with their current supervisor. Additionally, most (71 percent) engage in covering behaviors, such as changing where, when or how frequently they use the bathroom (39 percent) and altering their voice or mannerisms (46 percent) at work.
“Transgender people are a particularly vulnerable and marginalized group in the workplace. Many are not bringing their full selves to work and face unsupportive workplace environments, which makes them less likely to fully invest in their current employer and job.”
Brad Sears, Williams Institute
Researchers analyzed survey data collected in the summer of 2023 to examine the workplace experiences of transgender adults. That data indicates that transgender employees were twice as likely as cisgender LGBQ employees to have left a job (67 percent vs. 31 percent) because of how they were treated based on their LGBTQ status.
Due to the workplace environment at their current job, 29 percent of transgender employees have considered leaving. Of those, most (79 percent) had taken steps toward finding another job.
ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
Demographics
• An estimated 71 percent of transgender adults in the workforce are under the age of 35, compared to 51 percent of cisgender LGBQ adults and 87 percent of nonbinary adults.
• Half (50 percent) of transgender adults in the workforce are people of color.
• Six in 10 (60 percent) transgender workers are making less than $50,000 a year.
Discrimination and harassment
• 70 percent of transgender employees reported experiencing at least one form of employment discrimination (including being fired, not hired, or not promoted) based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at some point in their lives.
• About two-thirds (68 percent) of transgender employees reported experiencing at least one form of harassment at work due to their sexual orientation or gender identity at some point in their lives.
Recent experiences of discrimination and hassment
• Forty-seven percent of transgender employees reported workplace discrimination or harassment in the past year compared to 15 percent of cisgender LGBQ employees and 29 percent of nonbinary employees.
Out at work
• One-third (36 percent) of transgender employees reported that they are not open about being LGBTQ to their current supervisor, and approximately one in eight (13 percent) reported that they are not out to any of their co-workers.
• Only four in 10 (39 percent) of transgender employees reported that they were out to all their co-workers.
— Tammye Nash