LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day

june 13, 2024

This year, Equal Pay Today is partnering up with coalition members to raise awareness about the lack of wage gap data for LGBTQIA+ communities on June 13, 2024.

On this LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day, we join forces to challenge a system that devalues our labor, discriminates against our identities, and denies us the economic security we deserve. Together, we strive for a future where our contributions, regardless of gender identity, sex characteristics, or sexual orientation, are valued equally.

Our fight for equal pay takes an intersectional approach, acknowledging that the wage gap is magnified for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, LGBTQIA+ people of color, LGBTQIA+ women, immigrants, and other marginalized identities. Together, we champion inclusive solutions that uplift all voices within our diverse community.

While national pay data collection is limited, according to research from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, LGBTQIA+ workers make approximately 90 cents for every dollar earned by the typical worker in the U.S. Women in the LGBTQIA+ community make only 87 cents for every dollar the typical worker earns.

In another year marred by hundreds of pieces of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, we stand firm, raising our voices to address wage inequality and all its contributors, employment and housing discrimination, poverty, and scarcity that impact our diverse community. We stand together, united in our pursuit of justice and equality. And we continue to push for the data we need on LGBTQIA communities to be routinely collected and made available, so we can highlight our victories, and target our next fights.   Wage equality is not a distant dream—it is a future we can create.

Thank you for joining us on LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day, and together, we will build a world where our community is valued, uplifted, and financially empowered.

Take action to support LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day

  • The Equality Act, which codifies into law national non-discrimination housing, employment, education, finance/banking, and public accommodation protections on the basis of sex, gender /gender identity, sex characteristics, and sexual orientation

  • LGBTQIA Data Inclusion Act, which directs all federal agencies involved in data collection to incorporate standardized measures of sexual orientation and gender identity into their survey tools.

Both of these bills have previously passed the U.S. House of Representatives and are expected to be re-introduced in mid-June.

Facts about the LGBTQIA+ workers in the United States

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation found that full-time LGBTQ workers make approximately 90 cents for every $1 earned by the average worker in the US. It’s even larger for LGBTQ+ women– at 79 cents.

Transgender and cisgender bisexual women experience the highest rates of poverty, according to the Williams Institute.

22% of LGBTQ+ people live in poverty. That means food insecurity at twice the rate of non-LGBTQ identities.

1 in 5 women who identify as LGBTQ+ and work in construction trades face harassment for their sexual orientation. This pushes them out of good jobs and forces unnecessary financial insecurity.

Take Action: Pass the Equality Act!

Take Action: Pass the Equality Act!

Email your Senators to expand civil rights for women, nonbinary, and LGBTQ+ people. The Equality Act would end legal discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation by: 

  • Making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender in employment, education, housing, jury service and credit;

  • Declaring that anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination;

  • Amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex and LGBTQ+ status in public accommodations and federal programs;

  • Expanding the definition of public accommodations under federal civil rights law to include retail stores, banks, transportation services, and health care services;

  • Establishing that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (a 1994 law aimed at protecting religious liberty) can’t be used to enable gender or anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.

From our partners at Human Rights Campaign, check out the map below to see the reality for LGBTQ+ workers in the United States. This goes to show how imperative the Equality Act is. Learn more here.