Cohabitating Lesbians Earn More Than Their Heterosexual Counterparts

That’s right, lesbians who live together are making more money than both married and unmarried heterosexual women living with a partner.

This interests me for two big reasons:

1. That someone even thought to study income levels between gay and straight women.
2. That there’s actually a difference.

I blogged over at Lively Women about a study comparing earnings between lesbians and heterosexual women, and I just had to bring it up over here as well since it’s totally relevant. So here’s the deal: The current issue of Industrial Relations reports study results that point to an income gap between gay and straight women, and lesbians who live together are coming out on top.

Jepsen finds that the average earnings of cohabiting lesbians are higher than those of both cohabiting and married heterosexual women. On average, lesbians who cohabit earn 10 percent more than married women. Previous research has shown that women without children earn more than those with children, and lesbians, in general, are less likely to have children than heterosexual women. However, cohabiting lesbians still earn more than other cohabiting women, even when parenthood is factored-out as a possible cause of the wage discrepancy. Read more.

So what’s the difference? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King

(photo via SXC.hu)