Social-Institutional Structures That Matter: An Exploratory Analysis of Sexual/Gender Minority Status and Income in Japan

Abstract

While most previous studies examining the effect of sexual orientation on earnings rely on lesbian women, gay men, and their heterosexual counterparts in Western societies, this paper argues that focusing on income disparities within sexual and gender minorities as well as social-institutional structures of a society is indispensable to the study of sexuality and gender stratification. Using the Survey on LGBT Issues in the Workplace Environment 2015, one of the only existing large-scale surveys on sexual and gender minorities in Japan, this study explores the association between sexual and/or gender minority status and income in Japan. The results show that there is a negative association between being a sexual and/or gender minority and income among both designated females at birth and designated males at birth. The results suggesting the lesbian premium found in Western economies are not observed in Japan. In addition, the findings indicate that the processes through which sexuality and gender stratification operates depend on various categories of sexual and gender minorities.