An emerging literature provides evidence that same-sex behaving men earn significantly less than different-sex behaving men. I corroborate these existing findings and explore the source of these earnings differentials. I show that differences in worker characteristics between same-sex behaving men and different-sex behaving workers cannot explain the significant wage differential that same-sex behaving men experience. Wage differentials for same-sex behaving men are surprising because sexual orientation is not a visible trait. It seems as though same-sex behaving men might use a strategy of "passing" to avoid discrimination. I develop a model of worker-firm interaction that incorporates passing. I show the existence of an equilibrium in which wage differentials reflect a compensating differential, where same-sex behaving workers accept lower wages in exchange for being able to reveal their sexual orientation within a tolerant firm. In this equilibrium, competition will not erode earnings differentials as traditional models of discrimination suggest.
Employment Nondiscrimination Acts (ENDAs) have received much political attention in the recent past. Despite the political attention, very little research has investigated the impact of ENDAs. I analyze the impact of ENDAs on labor supplies, which is under‐researched in the policy analysis literature. My work is the first to investigate the labor supply patterns of behaviorally gay men using data that are representative of the entire behaviorally gay population. I show that ENDAs motivate behaviorally gay men to work roughly 15–20 h more per week and increase the probability that behaviorally gay men will supply any labor by approximately 7%. These results suggest that ENDAs increase the labor supply of behaviorally gay workers by increasing workplace tolerance of homosexuality. (JEL J2, J7, J1)
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