A study from LGBT thinktank Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles this week found that enacting a state law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Pennsylvania would cost the state little, but would have a vast and needed effect on LGBT Pennsylvanians.
The Williams Institute culled research from a number of sources, including census data and public polls, about the impact of incorporating LGBT people into the state Human Relations Act. Pennsylvania is one of 33 states in the country that lacks discrimination protections for LGBT people.
Enacting a state law to prohibit LGBT discrimination, the study said, would cost the state Human Relations Commission up to $228,000 per year, about 2.4 percent of its annual $9.5-million budget. The study noted this was a “conservatively high” figure, based on the estimate that the law would create about 82 new cases per year.
According to the report, about 276,000 LGBT adults live in Pennsylvania, 174,000 of whom are in the workforce. In the past few years, 33 municipalities moved to ban LGBT discrimination, but 69 percent of the state’s workforce is still not covered by such a law, the study says.
In the private sector, at least 139 companies in Pennsylvania offer workplace protections based on sexual orientation, 40 of which also extend to gender identity. And 37 Fortune 1000 companies in Pennsylvania ban sexual-orientation discrimination.
Despite the growing number of companies that offer such policies, men in same-sex relationships in the state earn less than their heterosexual married counterparts.
According to Census data, the median income of men in same-sex couples in Pennsylvania is $31,000, an almost-20-percent difference from men married to women, who earn a median $38,500, despite that men in same-sex relationships are more likely to have earned a college degree.
Women in same-sex relationships in the state earn less than heterosexual married men and men in same-sex relationships, but more than heterosexual married women.
These figures are consistent with national numbers, and a 2009 study suggested that enacting a state LGBT nondiscrimination law helps close the wage gap for gay men.
According to a recent national study by the Pew Research Center, 21 percent of LGBT respondents had been treated unfairly in hiring, pay or promotions at their workplaces, and the Williams Institute Pennsylvania is also experiencing “widespread and continuing discrimination against LGBT workers.”
“Pennsylvania teachers, factory workers and law-enforcement officers have all faced workplace discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said study co-author Christy Mallory. “Uniform legal protections could provide more consistent and stronger recourse for the state’s workers at minimal administrative cost to the government.”
