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The average US Government LGBT employee earns 8-29% less than his/her heterosexual colleagues, according to a new report on discrimination against LGBT people in the public sector.

One in five LGBT public sector employees has experienced workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and 13% have reported such discrimination in the past 12 months.

The report, from The Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law & Public Policy found that the rate of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation within state and local governments is the same as in the private sector.

Over 6.2 million Americans are State employees, making the US government the largest employer in the country.

The data was presented yesterday (23 Sept 2009) during a hearing of the House Education and Labor Committee on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009.

The Act would prohibit job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with 15 or more employees. Workplace discrimination on those bases is currently legal in a majority of US states.

“Our findings clearly demonstrate that discrimination against members of the LGBT community is persistent and occurs at all levels of government,” said Brad Sears, Executive Director of the Williams Institute.

“This is exactly the kind of data that was presented to support passage of earlier civil rights legislation, and Congress should act now to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”

The year-long study of workplace issues faced by LGBT individuals in the USA was the most comprehensive review yet of discrimination against LGBT people in the public sector.

Posted in: Campaigns & Politics |