There’s a not uncommon perception that Gay and Lesbian households have more income than straight households, and because of that they have a disproportionately greater economic might. At least that’s been offered as a reason that to discount LGBT political gains and lobbying success. Turns out that LGBT earners tend to earn less money than straight workers.
Joe Clark lays out the findings and the reasons according to sixth months of personal study:
Reality: Gay males earn less and lesbians earn more than straight people
Most of the dozens of studies of income and earnings of gay men and lesbians show consistent results. There are two ways to state these results.
Weak statement: Neither gay males nor lesbians earn more than straight people.
Strong statement: Gay males earn less than straight males, often much less. Meanwhile, lesbians earn more than straight females.
Either way, most of the data shows that gay males do not earn more than straight people. That means “the gay community” – again, really just gay males – is not “affluent” or richer than heteros are.
Why? The Clark looks into the specifics on his blog, but the short answer is that gay men tend to enter professions that are dominated by women and traditionally pay less. Lesbians tend to earn more than they gay counterparts because, conversely they tend to enter male dominated professions.
More here. The NY Times blog had a discussion of this idea on their Freakonomics blog here.