EMPLOYMENT
Participation in the Underground Economy by Employment
65
attainment remained elevated, including 6% of those with graduate degrees.
50
Sex Work by Educational Attainment
45 40 50
35
25
45
29%
28%
30
20
14%
15
40
21%
20%
30
10
25
5
20
0
15 Lost Job
Unemployed
Any Underground Economy
Sex Work
33%
35 14%
16% 12%
10
Drug Sales
7%
0
No HS Diploma
SEX WORK
Eleven percent (11%) of respondents did sex work for income. Here we take a closer look at the demographics of sex workers in our sample and then examine their rates of incarceration, homelessness, and health outcomes. MTF respondents were more likely to report sex work (15%) than FTM respondents (7%); these data unearths the reality that some transgender men have also done sex work at some point in their lives. Transgender respondents, overall, reported sex work at 12%, only slightly higher than gender non-conforming respondents (10%). Respondents of color were more likely to have reported having done sex work; African-American respondents reporting the highest rate at 44%. Latino/a respondents had the next highest rate at 28%. These data aligns with extremely high rates of unemployment and workplace abuse experienced by respondents of color in the study.
44%
40
Graduate Degree
Homelessness
Respondents reporting sex work were far more likely to also report experiencing homelessness due to bias than the full sample; anecdotal evidence indicates that many who face homelessness do sex work to pay rent or to stay in a hotel. Forty-eight percent (48%) of those who had done sex work also reported experiencing homelessness due to bias. This compares to 19% of the sample overall and 7.4% for the general population overall.5 Incarceration
Participants who did sex work were almost four times as likely to have been incarcerated for any reason (48%) than the overall sample (16%).
Smoking
35
The rate of smoking among those who had done sex work was much higher (49%) than the overall sample (30%).
28%
30 25 20
19%
17% 11%
Drinking and Drugs
11%
10
6%
5 0
Some College College Degree
Those who had did sex work were over 25 times more likely to be HIV-positive (15.32%) than the general population (0.6%).6
50
15
High School Diploma
HIV
Sex Work by Race
45
6%
5
Overall Sample
American Indian
Asian
Black
Latino/a
White
Multiracial
Respondents who had done sex work were twice as likely to misuse drugs or alcohol to cope with the mistreatment (18%) as the overall sample (8%). Suicide Attempts
Those with higher educational attainment were less likely to report sex work. Those with no high school diploma reported a 33% rate of sex work, compared to those with college degrees at 7%. However, sex work among those with high levels of
The rate of attempted suicide among those who had done sex work was mucg higher (60%) than the overall sample (41%) and more than 37 times higher than the general population (1.6%).