Study finds bi men also paid 25 per cent less than heterosexual co-workers; experts say perceptions of bi employees ‘lag behind’ those of gay staff
Bisexual men earn almost £4 less per hour than on average gay men, and £3 less per hour than heterosexual men, a new study has found.
Analysis of historical earnings data from 20,000 employees in almost 2,000 British workplaces found gross hourly earnings of bi men to be £9.39, compared to £13.33 for gay men and £12.30 for hetero men.
This equates to a 31 per cent wage gap between bi men and gay men, and a 25 per cent wage gap between bi men and hetero men, said the study, which was published in the British Sociological Association’s Work, Employment and Society journal.
The analysis also showed that lesbians, on average, earned £9.87 per hour (5 per cent more than bi men), while bi women earned £9.58 per hour (2 per cent more than bi men).
Professor Alex Bryson, of University College London’s Institute of Education, who analysed the data, said: “The attitudes of both employers and employees towards bisexual employees lag behind the positive developments there have been with respect to perceptions of homosexual employees.”
The study’s findings that there was no significant wage gap between gay and hetero men was “in contrast to most previous research in this area”, added Byson.
Bryson also compared pay for people of similar ages, working in similar occupations, and found that the average hourly earnings for bi men were still 20 per cent less than those of hetero men – even if the workplace had an explicit equal opportunities policy on sexual orientation. This wage gap was found across all workplaces, occupations and areas in the UK.
The analysis also found that lesbian women were paid nearly 30 per cent less than hetero women if they were not employed in a workplace that had an equal opportunities policy that explicitly referred to sexual orientation.
Bryson’s research confirms the findings of equality group Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index Staff Survey, published earlier this year, which showed that bi people were treated differently at work to gay employees.
A spokesman for Stonewall said: “We have seen in our own research that bi people experience specific discrimination that differs from other lesbian and gay people. Just 11 per cent of bi people see [positive] role models at work, compared with 53 per cent of gay colleagues and 42 per cent of lesbian colleagues.”