A concise summary of the current literature.
Although there is still a dearth of data on transgender people’s experiences in the U.S. workplace, this is a burgeoning area of study. Below, I’ve attempted to synthesize key literature (both academic and “grey” literature) to provide a brief overview on trans people’s experiences at work.
First, it’s important to note that trans people are less likely to be stably employed compared to their cisgender counterparts. This lack of employment results in high rates of poverty and low median household incomes for trans people. Importantly, this disparity in employment and poverty appears to be most pronounced for transgender women.
Trans people’s high rate of unemployment and resulting economic disempowerment reflect the institutional and structural barriers they face in acquiring and retaining employment. Many of these obstacles are delineated below.
Hiring
Before trans people are hired into the workforce, they must overcome transphobic bias in the hiring process. McFadden (2020) has helpfully summarized some of the research in this area, citing studies that demonstrate transphobic bias in both the application review and interview process. Expanding on this research, a more recent experiment run by Rice et al. (2022) found that transgender job applicants’ skills and personalities were rated more negatively than their cisgender peers (though it’s worth noting that ratings for applicants’ potential for success were not significantly different). Beyond academic literature, anecdotal data collected directly from trans people (which is a valuable form of information in its own right!) demonstrates the painful reality of this bias.
Promotion
Even after hiring, trans people are less likely than their cisgender peers to be promoted. Here, too, McFadden’s 2020 synopsis of the literature is illuminating. Similarly, Köllen et al.’s 2016 summary of extant research on the subject noted rampant promotion bias. Once again, it appears that trans women particularly lose out: their careers are more likely to suffer post-transition than trans men’s due to the effects of amplified harassment, transmisogynistic bias, and uniquely high rates of firing.
Termination of employment
Research also suggests that trans people are fired at rates higher than cisgender people (and as noted above, trans women are particularly likely to experience unjust firing). Data from the National Center for Transgender Equality’s annual survey has suggested that 1 in 4 trans people have lost employment due to transphobic bias. The Williams Institute at UCLA’s review of the literature found that anywhere from 15–57% of trans people have been fired due to this bias. And although the Supreme Court has ruled that it is illegal to fire an individual simply for being trans, there is no guarantee that trans people will not experience termination under the guise of other reasons. This is not a stretch of the imagination, given the level of hostility trans people regularly face in the workplace (detailed further below).
Wage gap
Much has rightfully been made about the persistent wage gap between (implicitly cisgender) women and men. However, the wage gap between trans and cisgender people tends to be under-discussed. This omission is concerning, particularly given that the “gap” between trans and cis people’s wages is more of a chasm. Shannon (2022) found not only that trans people were paid significantly less than their cis peers, but also that they were more likely to be working part-time. It is important (and interesting!) to note, however, that trans women’s wages were likely to decrease post-transition — whereas trans men’s wages often increased. Still, data show that trans people in the U.S. are paid 32% less than cis people.*
Microaggressions, hostility, and violence in the workplace
Extensive research paints a grim picture of transphobia in the U.S. workplace. This includes everyday harms such as misgendering, lack of gender-appropriate bathrooms, rampant microaggressions such as being “preached at” or ridiculed, and being outed at work. However, in many cases the harm escales to overt sexual and physical harassment and even physical assault.
Then there are additional institutional and structural barriers, such as lack of access to gender-affirming healthcare benefits, denial of leave for gender-affirming care, and a lack of explicit legal and workplace policy protections for trans people. These and other stressors lead to a pervading sense of loneliness and stress amongst trans people in the workplace, as well as an inability to live out their identities authentically while on the job.
Although the research on trans people’s experience in the U.S. workplace is almost relentlessly grim, we should remember the teaching of indigenous scholar Eve Tuck in her profound article “Suspending Damage”**: when telling the story of marginalized communities, we cannot focus only on the oppression and trauma. We must also make room for the multi-valent resilience of those communities — their aspirations, their creativity, their vibrance, and so forth.
It’s true that trans people face an uphill battle in acquiring and retaining employment, and this impacts everything from our income to our housing to our mental health and more. Yet at the same time, our ability to persist is self-evident. As a matter of collective survival and political resistance, we can continue imagining ourselves into the spaces around us — including the ones that were never built with us in mind.
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*I hesitate to link this report given that it was compiled by McKinsey & Company, a firm that is frequently embroiled in scandals that include human rights abuses; however, I believe the data are important enough to warrant inclusion.
**It should be noted that Tuck was originally specifically addressing scholars who write on the experience of indigenous communities. Her teaching has since also been applied in multiple other contexts by other feminist scholars I’ve learned from.
