August 2024

US. Reduction in Pension Benefits Leads to Wider Income Inequality, Study Finds

The continuing decline of the number of defined benefit pension participants in the U.S. is widening America’s income equality gap, which in turn is stunting economic growth, according to a recent study from the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. The study also found that public policies aimed at cutting public costs by reducing pension benefits or switching to defined contribution plans may actually increase the need for public spending due to “the dynamic interrelationship between pension reforms, income inequality, the...

July 2024

Sexual Orientation and Financial Well-Being in the United States

By Christopher S. Carpenter, Kabir Dasgupta, Zofsha Merchant & Alexander Plum We study the relationship between financial well-being and sexual orientation in the United States using Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) data for 2019-2022. We document that people who are lesbian, gay, and bisexual (or LGB) have significantly more difficulty managing financially than similarly situated heterosexual individuals—and this pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic. Differences are found across a broad array of current and future financial well-being outcomes, including retirement...

Career Expectations and Outcomes: Evidence (on Gender Gaps) from the Economics Job Market

By Brooke Helppie McFall, Eric D. Parolin & Basit Zafar This paper investigates gender gaps in long-term career expectations and outcomes of PhD candidates in economics. For this purpose, we match rich survey data on PhD candidates (from the 2008-2010 job market cohorts) to public data on job histories and publication records through 2022. We document four novel empirical facts: (1) there is a robust gender gap in career expectations, with females about 10 percentage points less likely to ex-ante expect to get...

June 2024

Hidden Figures: LGBT Health Inequalities in the UK

By LGBT Foundation  We believe in a fair and equal society where all lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people can achieve their full potential. Our work started in 1975 and we’ve been changing the lives of LGBT people ever since. Over the last five decades, we’ve provided information, services and support for LGBT people who’ve had nowhere else to turn. We’ve been at the forefront of the social and legal changes that mean LGBT people in the UK have more rights...

LGBT Equality Index. The most LGBT-Friendly Countries in the World.

By Equaldex  The LGBT legal index measures the current legal status of 13 different issues ranging from the legal status of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, LGBT discrimination protections, LGBT censorship laws, and more. Each topic is weighted differently (for example, if same-sex marriage is illegal in a region, it would have a much bigger impact on the score than not allowing LGBT people to serve in the military). Each topic is assigned a "total possible score" and a "score" is assigned...

Discrimination and Barriers to Well-Being: The State of the LGBTQI+ Community in 2022

By Caroline Medina & Lindsay Mahowald LGBTQI+ people and other “sexual and gender diverse”1 people experience structural and interpersonal discrimination that adversely affects their well-being and drives disparate outcomes across crucial areas of life.2 The current patchwork of nondiscrimination laws in states across the country and existing gaps in federal civil rights laws leave millions of LGBTQI+ people without protection from discrimination.3 The Biden-Harris administration, since the beginning of its tenure, has taken numerous actions across executive agencies to bolster nondiscrimination protections in...

LGBTQ+ people still face discrimination and economic inequality. These policies could help.

By Emma Ockerman LGBTQ+ people have long been subjected to economic inequality, including higher poverty rates, a greater likelihood of experiencing homelessness, and lower median earnings. Though economic policies that would broadly uplift low-income people and workers in the U.S. — including access to better-paying jobs, a higher minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, child-care support, and quality healthcare — would similarly benefit LGBTQ+ people who might lack such resources, experts and advocates say, LGBTQ+ people face the additional burden of...

US. LGBTQ elders struggle with health care, housing and isolation

LGBTQ older adults are four times less likely to be parents than older heterosexual adults, and twice as likely to grow old single and living alone, according to SAGE, a national group that offers services and advocacy for LGBTQ adults 50 and older. The challenges LGBTQ elders face overlap with an aging U.S. population. According to the U.S. Census, the population aged 65 or over grew to an unprecedented 55.8 million, or 16.8% of the total population, in 2020. The...

UK. ‘Serious disparity’ around retirement savings of people identifying as LGBTQ+

One in four (25%) people who identify as LGBTQ+ are not saving for their retirement, a survey has found. The research was released by Scottish Widows to coincide with Pride Month in June. It also found that just under a fifth (18%) of people who do not identify as LGBTQ+ report they are saving nothing towards their retirement. People who are LGBTQ+ were also less likely in the survey to say that they have taken financial advice. One in nine (11%) people surveyed who identify as...

The Aging Experiences of LGBTQ Ethnic Minority Older Adults: A Systematic Review

By Jinwen Chen, Helen McLaren, Michelle Jones & Lida Shams In gerontological research and practice, an increasing amount of attention is being paid to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) older people and how their experiences differ from their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. However, LGBTQ older adults themselves are not a homogenous group. Moreover, as the immigrant populations in industrialized nations age, the number of LGBTQ older adults from ethnic minority backgrounds will only grow. This systematic review hence...