Orange County Employment Lawyers Blog
It’s been nearly three years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia that firing someone on the basis of their sexual orientation or transgender status is a breach of Title VII – specifically, its prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sex. And yet, data continues to show that people who are nonbinary (about 1.2 million adults in the U.S.) are facing clear discrimination – both on-the-job and while searching for work. 
A market analysis by Business.com (a business resource platform) revealed that nearly 80 percent of nonbinary workers believe that to identify themselves according to their gender would hinder their job search. More than half say their gender identity has actively impacted their work life in a negative way.
To test this theory, researchers sent out 180 “phantom” resumes to various job postings – identical (with gender-ambiguous names like, “Taylor Williams”) except for the fact that some indicated they/them pronouns while others indicated typical cisgender pronouns. Perhaps unsurprisingly, those resumes that contained nonbinary pronouns received fewer interview requests. Resumes with they/them pronouns received 8 percent fewer responses from employers. Nearly 65 percent of these companies are designated “Equal Opportunity Employees,” so the fact that there’s a noticeable disparity even among them is troubling.
California has prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of sex since 1992 – and broadened that law in 2000 to protect transgender, nonbinary, and homosexual workers. And yet, a recent report from the California Civil Rights Department revealed that among private employers in the state with 100+ workers, more than half of those who identified as non-binary were in positions with below-average pay (less than $31,000 annually). By comparison, 32 percent of cisgender men fell beneath this pay grade, as did 43 percent of cisgender women. Continue Reading ›