While the report provides some insight into corporate inclusivity, the LGBTQ+ community isn't a monolith. Dividing the workforce into two broad categories (LGBTQ+ vs. non) provides some preliminary data, but that isn't enough information for employees (or employers) to get a clear picture of the exact discriminatory systems at play in a given organization.
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Last year, Glassdoor — a website where employees anonymously rate companies — launched a suite of new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) products, including a tool enabling users to disclose their demographics. It’s part of a push to better support people with intersecting identities by allowing them to sort data and see how companies accommodate, retain, and support folks from historically excluded backgrounds.
Using that information, Glassdoor has now compiled a report on job satisfaction ratings for its LGBTQ+ users. While some companies receive high scores, Glassdoor found the demographic often scores lower on the job satisfaction scale than non-LGBTQ+ employees.
The findings are based on submissions from anonymous, US-based users who disclosed their sexual orientation and assigned companies a 1-to-5 rating of their current or former employer as of May 3, 2021.
The report looked at several factors and included at least 3,000 LGBTQ+ ratings for each workplace factor rating as of 5/3/21.
COURTESY: GLASSDOOR.
Overall, LGBTQ+ employees gave their employer a rating of 3.27 out of 5, which is slightly less than the overall rating of 3.47 from non-LGBTQ+ employees.
“Most notably, LGBTQ+ employees are less satisfied with the company’s Senior Leadership (2.88), along with Career Opportunities (3.03) and Compensation & Benefits (3.13) when compared to non-LGBTQ+ employees,” the report reads.
At 4.14, Apple received one of the highest ratings for job satisfaction among LGBTQ+ employees, vs. a score of 4.05 for non-LGBTQ+ employees.
Amazon scored among the lowest at 2.85 vs. 3.45 for non-LGBTQ+ employees.
While the report provides some insight into corporate inclusivity, the LGBTQ+ community isn’t a monolith. Dividing the workforce into two broad categories (LGBTQ+ vs. non) provides some preliminary data, but that isn’t enough information for employees (or employers) to get a clear picture of the exact discriminatory systems at play in a given organization.
For example, a 2018 paper in Science Advances found gay men may be subjected to unique forms of discrimination that other members of the LGBTQ+ community may not experience.
The paper examined the results of a 2015 survey given to 4,162 college seniors at 78 U.S. institutions, with about 8 per cent of the participants identifying as LGBQ. It found that heterosexual men were 17 per cent more likely to remain in STEM studies than their LGBQ male classmates after controlling for factors like high school grades and participation in undergrad research.
But LGBQ women were 18 per cent more likely to remain in STEM when compared to heterosexual women, the paper says.
And a Swedish study found employers are more likely to reject job applications from transgender job-seekers, especially in male-dominated fields, even though Swedish legislation prohibits gender identity and gender discrimination.
We also cannot forget that disabled, LGBTQ+ and a visible racial minority are, in many instances, more likely to face discrimination than their white LGBTQ+ colleagues.
That’s all to say: The Glassdoor report is interesting, but take it with a grain of salt. We’re bringing it to your attention because A) We like to discuss LGBTQ+ issues, and B) We think it’s important to analyze reports about marginalized demographics through a critical lens to see if the findings are representing that group in a meaningful way and providing actionable insight.
