These estimates imply that male-to-female respondents...lose about 31 percent of their earnings after their gender transition... Female-to-male respondents ...are estimated to gain about 10 percent in earnings following their gender transition...
What's so surprising? That misogyny has double the effect of transphobia. About 10% vs 5% - translating into a 20% and 10% pay difference respectively.
Someone going from Female (-10%) to Male (+10%) Would get a 20% pay rise.
Someone going from non-TS (+5%) to TS (-5%) would get a 10% pay cut.
So someone doing both - an FtoM transition - gets a 10% pay rise.
Someone going from Male (+10%) to Female (-10%) would get a 20% pay cut.
Someone going from non-TS to TS gets a 10% pay cut too - so someone doing both gets a 30% pay cut.
Yes, I know I'm assuming they're independent variables, and they're probably not. But as a back-of-the-envelope calculation, it's in the right ballpark.
Figures are from Before and After: Gender Transitions, Human Capital, and Workplace Experiences Schilt K, Wiswall M in The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy
Great news, Zoe.
ReplyDeleteJust when surgery, therapy, hormones, wardrobe, voice training, document changes, and everything else drives up your living expenses.
Sounds an awful lot like the system is rigged to strongly discourage people from doing this, do you think?
Sheesh!
Tell me you're not surprised by this.
ReplyDeleteI think on it this way - if you can even attempt this, nothing is beyond you.
ReplyDeleteIt's at times like this I feel like a fraud. I didn't have the courage to, did I? Unlike some, I didn't have the intestinal fortitude.
Ok, I seem to have coped rather well, and I give myself credit for that. Once thrown in the deep end, I paddled furiously, and succeeded.
But I can't pretend I'm in the same league as others. Still, there is one thing : if I can succeed, anyone who has more guts and determination than I do can. And that means every other woman who attempts transition can succeed too. No matter how much harder they have it than I do, they have more capability than I do too.
Most of the time I feel like giving up, not because of transition per se, but because of everything that has happened because of it during the past five years. It's getting harder and harder to pick myself up and keep going after each nasty episode, new or not, and the nastiness just keeps coming. I am rapidly losing the ability to cope.
ReplyDeleteMy income has gone up due to regular raises. However, the first years after I transitioned that raise was smaller than usual.
ReplyDeletemy 2 cents