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LGBTQI+ Americans Deserve—and Need—Inclusive Paid Leave
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LGBTQI+ Americans Deserve—and Need—Inclusive Paid Leave

LGBTQI+ Americans are particularly harmed by the lack of national paid leave program—and have much to gain from comprehensive, inclusive paid leave.

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In this article
Photo shows a closeup view of an adult holding a child's hand
A mother holds her child's hand at a hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, November 2021. (Getty/Joseph Prezioso/AFP)

All people—including LGBTQI+ people—deserve the time they need to care for themselves and the people they love, without risking their paycheck or their job. But due to continued inaction on paid leave at the federal leave and the persistent effects of discrimination, too many LGBTQI+ people must go without leave that meets their needs—or without any leave at all. Moreover, without sufficient protections, the threat of discrimination can make using leave too risky for many LGBTQI+ people, even when they have access to leave on paper.

This issue brief highlights how LGBTQI+ people are especially affected by the lack of universal paid leave and therefore would particularly benefit from comprehensive, inclusive paid leave such as the proposal in the FAMILY Act.

With constrained choices, LGBTQI+ people often work in jobs that are unlikely to provide leave

LGBTQI+ people are concentrated in jobs that are unlikely to provide paid leave. Despite being employed at rates higher than non-LGBTQI+ people, LGBTQI+ people are disproportionately likely to be low income1 and more likely to live at or near the poverty line.2 There are also pronounced wage gaps for LGBTQI+ workers, particularly for transgender and nonbinary people.3 Low-wage workers are much less likely than higher-wage workers to have access to all forms of paid leave.4

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As previous Center for American Progress research highlights, LGBTQI+ people are disproportionately likely to work in retail and food service,5 industries with especially low rates of paid leave access.6 Similarly, LGBTQI+ people, especially transgender people, are overrepresented among part-time workers.7 Part-time workers are less than half as likely as full-time workers to report having access to paid family leave and short-term disability insurance through their employer8 and are less likely to be eligible for unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).9

LGBTQI+ people are also overrepresented among independent and gig workers. In a 2023 survey, nearly 1 in 5 (18 percent) LGBTQ respondents reported currently working in a gig position—twice the rate of non-LGBTQ respondents.10 Because gig workers are typically labeled as independent contractors, even where they may be legally entitled to employee status,11 they rarely have access to paid leave in practice.12 Beyond gig work, LGBTQI+ people are more likely than non-LGBTQI+ people to report being self-employed, including working as independent contractors or freelancers.13 With very limited exceptions, 14 the self-employed have essentially no access to paid leave.15

Compared with non-LGBTQI+ people, LGBTQI+ people also experience more frequent jobs changes,16 which can lower the likelihood of qualifying for leave when needed. In order to be eligible for unpaid, job-protected leave under the FMLA, workers must have been employed with their current employer for at least one year17—a policy that ends up excluding many LGBTQI+ people. Moreover, in both FMLA- and non-FMLA-covered workplaces, employer policies often limit eligibility for paid leave to those who have been with an employer for a minimum amount of time, adding another dimension to the impact of frequent job changes on leave access.

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The impacts of discrimination and underinclusive policies limit LGBTQI+ workers’ access to leave that works for them

Both overconcentration in lower-wage, lower-quality jobs and frequency of job changes are closely tied to persistent employment discrimination that constrains LGBTQI+ workers’ options. LGBTQI+ people often must leave jobs based on how they are treated18 or must make decisions about where to work to avoid discrimination.19 In previous Center for American Progress research, more than 1 in 5 (22 percent) LGBTQI+ people reported having been fired or not hired in the past year due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or intersex status.20 The impacts of harassment and discrimination in employment fall especially heavily on transgender people and LGBTQI+ people of color.21

Even where LGBTQI+ people nominally have access to leave, the lingering threat of discrimination can make it too risky to use in practice, especially where doing so would risk being outed at work. Half of LGBT employees are not out to their supervisor, while one-quarter are not out to any co-workers, according to a 2021 survey.22 And in a 2018 survey, 1 in 5 LGBTQ people agreed with the statement: “I would be afraid to request time off to take care of a loved one because it might disclose my LGBTQ identity.”23 Because being out at work carries a substantially increased risk of discrimination or firing,24 LGBTQI+ workers may be unable to safely take the leave they need to care for their loved ones.25

Employment discrimination against LGBTQI+ people

In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that firing an employee for being gay or transgender violates Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination,26 a protection that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has since elaborated on.27 Despite this important progress, discrimination against LGBTQI+ people remains a persistent and profound problem in practice.28 In addition to inclusive paid leave, LGBTQI+ Americans need the Equality Act, which would provide clear and comprehensive protection against discrimination and harassment in employment, as well as in housing, public accommodations, and other important domains.29

These barriers fall particularly hard on transgender people, who experience exceptionally high rates of employment discrimination.30 When a need for transgender-specific health care arises, many workers hesitate to request the leave they need.31 When they do request this leave, workers often face barriers to accessing it, including harassment, inappropriate questions, and other negative treatment.32 These challenges likely only compound the existing profound health disparities33 and difficulties in accessing supportive health care34 facing transgender people.

Even where LGBTQI+ people have access to some form of paid leave, these policies are often not LGBTQI+ inclusive.35 In a 2018 survey, less than half of LGBTQ respondents said that their employer’s leave policies are equally inclusive of LGBTQ parents.36 When workplace leave policies fail to include all ways to welcome a child, including adoption, foster care, and surrogacy, LGBTQI+ families are particularly harmed.37 Moreover, for those who have access to it, short-term disability insurance can make up for lost wages during recovery from childbirth 38 but does not cover new parents who did not themselves give birth.

Similarly, workplace leave policies often exclude chosen family members,39 with especially harmful impacts on LGBTQI+ people. Because of discrimination sometimes straining relationships with families of origin, LGBTQI+ people often rely on chosen family members, such as close friends, partners who are not legal spouses, or other loved ones to whom they may not have a biological or legal relationship.40 When they have a health need requiring time away from work, LGBTQI+ people are twice as likely as non-LGBTQI+ people to rely on chosen family; transgender people and LGBTQI+ people of color are even more likely to rely on chosen family.41 Moreover, LGBTQI+ people are more than twice as likely as non-LGBTQI+ people to rely on a partner to whom they are “not legally married or legally registered” for care.42

In particular, while the federal FMLA provides covered employees with unpaid leave to care for a seriously ill loved, one among other needs, this protection is limited to care for an employee’s parent, child, or legal spouse.43 Therefore, even when they are covered by the FMLA, LGBTQI+ employees do not have the legal right to use this leave to care for loved ones who do not meet this narrow definition.

Inclusive, comprehensive paid leave would particularly benefit LGBTQI+ Americans

The United States’ failure to ensure paid leave for all workers is harming LGBTQI+ workers and their families. Without paid leave, the time that many LGBTQI+ people need to address serious health or family needs is out of reach. In a 2018 survey, 65 percent of LGBTQ respondents said they would have financial concerns about requesting leave from work if they needed it; 40 percent would be afraid to lose their jobs.44 As a result of these concerns, along with the risk of potential discrimination, nearly two-thirds of LGBTQ respondents who had previously needed or considered taking leave reported: “I took less leave than I wanted or needed to.”45 Forgoing or cutting short needed leave, in turn, puts LGBTQI+ families’ health at risk.46

As a result, LBGTQI+ people stand to particularly gain from comprehensive, inclusive paid leave laws. The FAMILY Act47 is the leading federal paid leave proposal.48 If passed, the bill would guarantee paid leave to all workers, including part-time workers, self-employed workers, gig workers, and those across all income levels and industries49—the kind of inclusive, universal coverage needed to ensure LBGTQI+ workers don’t fall through the cracks. Paid leave would be portable, ensuring that LGBTQI+ people don’t lose out on benefits they have earned because they must switch jobs or are between roles.50

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Moreover, the FAMILY Act would provide leave designed to meet the full range of needs of LGBTQI+ workers and their families. Workers could take paid leave to care for a broad range of loved ones when they are seriously ill or injured, including chosen family.51 Parents of any gender could use leave to bond with a new child, including children newly placed for foster care and adoption.52 The FAMILY Act would also provide safe leave53 to address the impacts of sexual and domestic violence,54 a need facing many LGBTQI+ people.55 And leave could be used to address workers’ own serious health condition, covering a wide range of physical and mental health needs.56

Under the FAMILY Act, leave would be both paid and protected, ensuring LGBTQI+ workers can take the time they need without risking their paycheck or their job. Workers would receive benefits on a sliding scale starting at 85 percent of their income, so that low-wage workers—among whom LGBTQI+ people are overrepresented—can afford to take leave.57 All employees taking leave under the FAMILY Act would be protected against retaliation and discrimination for requesting or using leave, offering powerful new protections to enable LBGTQI+ workers to take leave safely.58

Conclusion

Each and every day in a country without national paid leave, LGBTQI+ people are forced to pit their health and family against their livelihoods. The United States can and must do better, guaranteeing paid leave for all people and all families that truly meets their needs.  

The author would like to thank Cait Smith and Kennedy Andara for their assistance with this issue brief.

Endnotes

  1. Caroline Medina and Lindsay Mahowald, “Discrimination and Barriers to Well-Being: The State of the LGBTQI+ Community in 2022” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2023), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/discrimination-and-barriers-to-well-being-the-state-of-the-lgbtqi-community-in-2022/.
  2. Caroline Medina and others, “Fact Sheet: LGBT Workers in the Labor Market,” Center for American Progress, June 1, 2022, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fact-sheet-lgbt-workers-in-the-labor-market/.
  3. Human Rights Campaign, “The Wage Gap Among LGBTQ+ Workers in the United States,” available at https://www.hrc.org/resources/the-wage-gap-among-lgbtq-workers-in-the-united-states (last accessed June 2024).
  4. Molly Weston Williamson, “The State of Paid Family and Medical Leave in the U.S. in 2024,” Center for American Progress, January 17, 2024, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-state-of-paid-family-and-medical-leave-in-the-u-s-in-2024/.
  5. Medina and Mahowald, “Discrimination and Barriers to Well-Being.”
  6. Weston Williamson, “The State of Paid Family and Medical Leave in the U.S. in 2024.”
  7. Medina and Mahowald, “Discrimination and Barriers to Well-Being.”
  8. Weston Williamson, “The State of Paid Family and Medical Leave in the U.S. in 2024.”
  9. Molly Weston Williamson, “Improving the FMLA: Expanding Unpaid Family and Medical Leave,” Center for American Progress, January 17, 2024, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/improving-the-fmla-expanding-unpaid-family-and-medical-leave/.  
  10. Spencer Watson and others, “The LGBTQI+ Economic and Financial (LEAF) Survey: Understanding the Financial Lives of LGBTQI+ People in the United States” (San Francisco: Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement and Research and Movement Advancement Project, 2023), p. 4, available at https://lgbtq-economics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/LEAF-Survey-Report-March-2023.pdf.
  11. Molly Weston Williamson, “Understanding the Self-Employed in the United States,” Center for American Progress, September 21, 2023, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/understanding-the-self-employed-in-the-united-states/.  
  12. Jenny R. Yang and others, “Reimagining Workplace Protections: A Policy Agenda to Meet Independent Contractors’ and Temporary Workers’ Needs” (Washington: Urban Institute, Aspen Institute Future of Work Initiative, and A Better Balance, 2020), available at https://www.urban.org/research/publication/reimagining-workplace-protections-policy-agenda-meet-independent-contractors-and-temporary-workers-needs.
  13. Medina and Mahowald, “Discrimination and Barriers to Well-Being.”
  14. Molly Weston Williamson, “Self-Employed Workers’ Access to State Paid Leave Programs in 2023,” Center for American Progress, August 10, 2023, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/self-employed-workers-access-to-state-paid-leave-programs-in-2023/.  
  15. Molly Weston Williamson, “Why Self-Employed Workers Need Paid Leave” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2023), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/why-self-employed-workers-need-paid-leave/.
  16. Medina and others, “Fact Sheet: LGBT Workers in the Labor Market”; Ana Hernández Kent and Sophia Scott, “New Analysis Finds LGBTQ+ Households Trail in Income and Wealth,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, December 1, 2022, available at https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/dec/new-analysis-finds-lgbtq-households-trail-income-wealth.  
  17. U.S. Code, “29 U.S.C. § 2611(2)(A)(i),” available at https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-1999-title29-section2611&num=0&edition=1999 (last accessed June 2024).
  18. Brad Sears and others, “LGBT People’s Experiences of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment” (Los Angeles: UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, 2021), p. 4, available at https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Workplace-Discrimination-Sep-2021.pdf.
  19. Medina and Mahowald, “Discrimination and Barriers to Well-Being.”
  20. Ibid.
  21. Ibid.; Sears and others, “LGBT People’s Experiences of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment,” p. 2.
  22. Sears and others, “LGBT People’s Experiences of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment,” p. 19.
  23. Mary Beth Maxwell and others, “2018 U.S. LGBTQ Paid Leave Survey” (Washington: Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2018), p. 7, available at https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/2018-HRC-LGBTQ-Paid-Leave-Survey.pdf?utm_campaign=Paid%20Leave&utm_source=HRC%20Website&_ga=2.45881389.847151741.1717076279-1072280986.1717076279.  
  24. Sears and others, “LGBT People’s Experiences of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment,” p. 1.
  25. Maxwell and others, “2018 U.S. LGBTQ Paid Leave Survey,” p. 6.
  26. Sharita Gruberg, “Beyond Bostock: The Future of LGBTQ Civil Rights” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2020), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/beyond-bostock-future-lgbtq-civil-rights/.
  27. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Sex Discrimination,” available at https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/sex-discrimination#Q3 (last accessed June 2024); U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Discrimination,” available at https://www.eeoc.gov/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-sogi-discrimination (last accessed June 2024).
  28. Medina and Mahowald, “Discrimination and Barriers to Well-Being.”
  29. Thee Santos, Caroline Medina, and Sharita Gruberg, “What You Need To Know About the Equality Act,” Center for American Progress, March 15, 2021, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/need-know-equality-act/.
  30. Nearly half (48.8 percent) of transgender people report having being fired or not hired because of their LGBT status. See Sears and others, “LGBT People’s Experiences of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment,” p. 2.
  31. Maxwell and others, “2018 U.S. LGBTQ Paid Leave Survey,” p. 30.
  32. Ibid., p. 31.
  33. Caroline Medina and others, “Protecting and Advancing Health Care for Transgender Adult Communities” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2021), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/protecting-advancing-health-care-transgender-adult-communities/.  
  34. Caroline Medina and Lindsay Mahowald, “Advancing Health Care Nondiscrimination Protections for LGBTQI+ Communities” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2022), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/advancing-health-care-nondiscrimination-protections-for-lgbtqi-communities/.
  35. Maxwell and others, “2018 U.S. LGBTQ Paid Leave Survey,” p. 4.
  36. Ibid., p. 17.
  37. Ibid.
  38. In the most recent federal data, 43 percent of private sector workers had access to short-term disability insurance, with low-income workers disproportionately likely to be left out. See Weston Williamson, “The State of Paid Family and Medical Leave in the U.S. in 2024.”
  39. Watson and others, “The LGBTQI+ Economic and Financial (LEAF) Survey,” p. 5.
  40. Caroline Medina and Molly Weston Williamson, “Paid Leave Policies Must Include Chosen Family,” Center for American Progress, March 1, 2023, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/paid-leave-policies-must-include-chosen-family/.
  41. Ibid.
  42. Ibid.
  43. U.S. Code, “29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)(C),” available at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2018-title29/html/USCODE-2018-title29-chap28-subchapI-sec2612.htm (last accessed June 2024).
  44. Maxwell and others, “2018 U.S. LGBTQ Paid Leave Survey,” p. 48. 
  45. Ibid., p. 9.
  46. Molly Weston Williamson, “Lack of Paid Leave Hurts Americans’ Health,” Center for American Progress, May 22, 2024, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/lack-of-paid-leave-hurts-americans-health/.
  47. FAMILY Act, H.R. 3481, 118th Cong., 1st sess. (May 18, 2023), available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3481?s=1&r=1&q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22%22%5D%7D; FAMILY Act, S. 1714, 118th Cong., 1st sess. (May 18, 2023), available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1714?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22%22%5D%7D&s=2&r=1.
  48. Molly Weston Williamson, “Getting To Know the New FAMILY Act” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2023), https://www.americanprogress.org/article/getting-to-know-the-new-family-act/.
  49. Ibid.
  50. Ibid.
  51. FAMILY Act, S. 1714, Section 2(5)(B)(ii)(I).
  52. FAMILY Act, S. 1714, Section 2(5)(I), by cross-reference to 29 USC § 2612(a)(1)(A)-(B).
  53. For more on safe leave, see Molly Weston Williamson, “The State of Safe Leave” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2024), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-state-of-safe-leave/.
  54. FAMILY Act, S. 1714, Section 2(5)(B)(i)(IV).  
  55. Human Rights Campaign, “Understanding Intimate Partner Violence in the LGBTQ+ Community,”  https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-intimate-partner-violence-in-the-lgbtq-community (last accessed June 2024).
  56. FAMILY Act, S. 1714, Section 2(5)(B)(i)(III); Weston Williamson, “Getting To Know the New FAMILY Act.”
  57. FAMILY Act, S. 1714, Section 4(b)(2)(A)-(B).
  58. Ibid., Section 4(h)(1)(A)(i) and Section 4(h)(1)(C).

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