Somewhere over the rainbow: sexual orientation and earnings in Germany
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to observe sexual orientation-based differences in German incomes. Gay men and lesbian women sort themselves into different occupations and sectors than their heterosexual counterparts.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysis of German Mikrozensus data for 2009. Mincer-style OLS income regerssions.
Findings
The author finds evidence that cohabiting gay men have an income penalty of 5-6 per cent compared with married men, while lesbian women have a premium of about 9-10 per cent compared with married women. Lesbians in a registered same-sex union have an income gain of about 12-16 per cent, while the effect for men is not statistically significant.
Originality/value
This is the first paper using German data to analyse income differentials based on sexual orientation (gays and lesbians).
Keywords
Acknowledgements
JEL Classification — J31, J16, J22
This paper is the private opinion of the author. The author thanks the editor and two anonymous referees for comments and suggestions, as well as Christian Pfeifer, Joachim Wagner, Sanne Hiller, John Philipp Weche-Gelübcke, Lina Andersson, Christopher Carpenter and András Tilcsik, workshops participants at the IAB Nuremberg, the German Association for Demography at Rostock University and of research seminars at Wuppertal University, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung Düsseldorf, and Leuphana University Lüneburg. However, all remaining errors belong to the author.
Citation
Humpert, S. (2016), "Somewhere over the rainbow: sexual orientation and earnings in Germany", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 69-98. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2014-0080
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited