Transgender Men and Women in 2015: Employed, Unemployed, or Not in the Labor Force

This study used data from the 2015 US Transgender Survey, which gathered information from the largest sample of trans individuals to date. High labor force participation rates and high unemployment rates were found for both trans men and women. However, women were more likely to be out of the labor force and less likely to be employed than men. The unemployment rate of trans women was greater than that of trans men with otherwise similar characteristics; these results are consistent with the existence of an additional labor market penalty for being female on top of a penalty for being transgender. While perceived gender incongruence (the ability of other people to identify transgender individuals as such) was more common among women, the relation of that variable with labor force status was stronger for men. There was no evidence that state-level employment non-discrimination laws were associated with improved labor force outcomes.