Recognising & Closing the Transgender Pay Gap in Britain

The gender pay gap is commonly defined as the difference in average earnings by which men earn more than women. This definition overlooks the significance of transphobic discrimination in explaining differences in the average earnings of trans and non-binary employees. This experience is neglected by gender pay gap policies that limit their understandings of 'gender' to the differences between men and women, including the UK Government's gender pay gap policies. Although the Government has recognised the existence of people that are outside of the binary of man and woman in other areas of policy, their gender pay gap policies are still strictly binary. This raises the question, if it really were a 'gender' pay gap, why are all aspects of gender not acknowledged?

My project aims to:
1. Expand understandings of the gender pay gap within feminist theory and British policy to include trans and non-binary workers;
2. Gage the lived experiences of British trans and non-binary workers;
3. Critically analyse how a transgender pay gap operates in Britain; and
4. Use the knowledge produced from my fieldwork and own independent research to inform policy recommendations that would recognise and address the transgender pay gap in Britain.

In order to complete these aims, I will conduct one-hour, online semi-structured interviews with around 30 trans and non-binary participants on their lived experiences of and thoughts on areas such as the job market, their workplace environments, and how their success in these areas are affected by their trans or non-binary identity, and anti-discrimination policies. I will source participants via convenience sampling by advertising the study on on X (formerly Twitter) and by having my study advertised by LGBT service providers such as the LGBT Foundation. I will also ask participants to advertise the study to anyone who they feel meets the selection criteria (snowball sampling).

Prior to the interview, participants will complete a survey to provide their contact and demographic information, establish their knowledge of relevant laws and public bodies, to establish the subjects they are comfortable to speak on during the interview, and to create a unique participant ID to allow their data to be anonymised. Responses from the survey will allow interview guides to be tailored to the participant, and for comparisons in experiences to be drawn between different demographic groups.

A discourse analysis of the qualitative data collected from the interviews will allow me to draw comparisons between the experiences of trans and non-binary employees and to identify any unique cases. Within this analysis, items and themes tagged as being in direct relation to a transgender pay gap will be subject to a further critical discourse analysis. This will allow me to understand how a transgender pay gap operates in a critical sense. So, for example, is a transgender pay gap caused, in part, by institutional transphobia?