The wage gap between certain portions of the gay male population and their heterosexual counterparts is on the decline according to a study published in the Kyklos International Review for Social Sciences. Unmarried gay men over the age of 25 who work “blue-collar, male-documented occupations” and cohabitate with their same sex partners are, on average, earning more than unmarried straight men living with their girlfriends.
“These estimates support the view that the overall improvement in people’s perception regarding homosexuality has contributed to reduce the wage gap against gay men in the U.S.” Economists Bruce Elmslie and Edinaldo Tebaldi wrote in their findings.
The gap between married heterosexual men and gay men has similarly shrunk, falling from just below 8% in the 90s to 4.5% in the early 2000s. Elmsie and Tebaldi attribute the shift to an “overall improvement in people’s perception regarding homosexuality,” but warn that their findings shouldn’t suggest that there isn’t more work to be done.
Gay men in sales-oriented and managerial occupations continue to make anywhere from 11-16% less than straight men, and gay men in rural areas and small towns saw significantly lower earnings regardless of their type of work.
