Workplace discrimination for LGBT employees is just as common in state and local governments as in the private sector, according to testimony delivered in Congress today.
Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law & Public Policy, made the observations as part of hearing on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009. He cited a study — the most comprehensive to date, according to the Williams Institute — that reviewed discrimination against LGBT people in the public sector.
A few other findings:
* One in five LGBT public sector employees has experienced workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation according to a 2008 study; a 2009 study found that 13% had reported such discrimination in the past year alone.
* A persistent and significant wage gap exists between heterosexual and LGBT employees. For example, government LGBT employees earn wages that are 8-29% lower than their heterosexual counterparts.
“This is exactly the kind of data that was presented to support passage of earlier civil rights legislation,” Sears said in a prepared statement, “and Congress should act now to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”
For more on today’s hearing, see this AP news article.
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