Hiring Discrimination Against Transgender Job Applicants in the US Labor Market
Abstract
Discrimination against transgender individuals harms their well-being and contributes to lower incomes and higher poverty rates (Grant et al., 2011; Fumarco et al., 2023; Shannon, 2022; Abbate et al., 2024). Access to employment opportunities is a critical determinant of lifetime earnings and other outcomes, yet surveys document frequent discrimination against transgender individuals (Kattari et al., 2016). While recent studies show hiring discrimination against transgender applicants (Granberg et al., 2020; Eames, 2024), analyses examining intersections with gender and race remains limited, as does research on geographic variation, particularly given differences in state and local anti-trans policies (Bardales, 2013; Rainey et al., 2015).We conducted a correspondence study to measure discrimination against transgender applicants and examine how it varies with applicant gender and race. We submitted roughly 5,600 resumes for entry-level jobs in food and retail sectors across 49 markets in 2023–2024. We signaled gender identity and race through names, pronouns, statements about differently gendered legal names to indicate transgender identity. We measured differences in callback rate between cisgender and transgender applicants and examined results by gender identity (cisgender and transgender women and men, as well as non-binary applicants) and race (Black vs. White applicants). Additionally, we test for heterogeneity between more and less trans-friendly states, using data on recent state-level anti-trans legislation introduced or passed.
This research provides large-scale experimental evidence on how gender identity, race, geography, and policy environments intersect in labor market discrimination. These results identify which demographic groups and geographic areas face the most severe employment discrimination, informing targeted policy interventions to protect transgender job seekers.