Does It Get Better? A Quasi-Cohort Analysis of Sexual Minority Wage Gaps

With few exceptions, it has been found that gay men earn less and lesbians earn more than their heterosexual counterparts. Most of the current literature has used single cross-sectional datasets to test possible sources of these wage differentials. 

This study adds to this literature by presenting a theoretical framework, grounded in gender theory, to explore: (a) whether sexual minority wage gaps have attenuated over the last decade, (b) whether wage gaps vary by age group, and (c) if wage gaps vary with duration in the labor market. 

Using Canadian census and survey data, this study finds:

• no evidence that wage gaps have attenuated for gay men 
• and only small reductions for lesbians and heterosexual women, relative to heterosexual men. 
• Wage gaps are larger for younger gay men than for older gay men, which may suggest a "coming out penalty". 
• The lesbian wage premium, vis-á-vis heterosexual women, does not appear at initial labor market entry; rather it develops with duration in the labour market.

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By: Waite S1.

• 1McGill University, Department of Sociology and Centre on Population Dynamics, Room 712, Leacock Building, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Quebec H3A 2T7, Canada. Electronic address: sean.waite@mail.mcgill.ca.

  

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