In a video that went viral, TikToker explains why lesbians earn higher salaries than heterosexual women.
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TikToker Aria Velz recently went viral after making a post where she clarifies the so-called ‘lesbian wage premium.’ Ten years ago, a study by the World Bank already pointed out a difference in the salary of lesbians and heterosexual women; In the UK, for example, this difference was 8% at the time, while in the US, lesbians earned on average 20% more.
“Why do lesbians earn more money than heterosexual women? For years, social scientists have observed that lesbians consistently earn more than heterosexual women. According to a meta-analysis of 30 international studies, gay women earn on average 9% more than heterosexual women, with variations by country. This has been observed so often that it even has a name: the lesbian wage premium.”
“So why is that? Why do lesbians, especially in the US, earn more than heterosexual women? We can start with the obvious fact that lesbians tend to be more educated than heterosexual women, are less likely to have children, live more predominantly in cities, and have more professional jobs.”
Velz explains in her video that to understand this wage difference, we should first look at the wage disparity that exists between men and women: “While the wage gap between men and women has certainly decreased, the disparity still exists because women continue to face expectations regarding domestic and emotional labor, which does not happen with men.”
“In contrast, lesbian couples have a more equal distribution of domestic work than heterosexual couples; there isn’t a partner who tends to oversee household responsibilities while the other focuses more on work and earning money. Both lesbian partners contribute more equitably to the family and their careers, which means that lesbians do not face the same conflicts that heterosexual women do,” she says.
“Interestingly, when we look at the salaries of lesbians who lived with a previous male spouse and those who never had a heterosexual relationship, the wage premium is significantly more present for lesbians who never lived with a male spouse. The lesson here is not that lesbians earn better; the issue is that domestic work influences the salaries of heterosexual women, and lesbians learned this lesson first.”
