A recent study of transgendered workers by the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy raises disturbing questions. The study found that women who transitioned to the male gender experienced a slight increase in pay. Those who changed gender to become women experienced pay reductions of nearly one third.
Stark salary disparities between men and women are common knowledge, with women typically receiving considerably lower pay. The study further confirms the relationship between gender and workers’ earnings, with the added component of anti-transgender discrimination.
The study, conducted by Kristen Schilt, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago, and New York University professor Matthew Wiswall, was based on interviews with 64 individuals who had worked before and after gender transitions.
Schilt, who is planning to expand the findings in a book slated for publication in 2010, also examined legal cases related to discrimination against the transgendered. She found that 90 percent of the cases involved men who had changed their appearance to live as women.
