50
NATIONAL TRANSGENDER DISCRIMINATION SURVEY
EMPLOYMENT Employment is fundamental to people’s ability to support themselves and their families. Paid work is not only essential to livelihood; it also contributes greatly to a sense of dignity and accomplishment over a lifetime. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts the rights of individuals to work at the job of their choice, receiving equal pay for equal work, without discrimination. Yet far too often, transgender people are denied these basic human rights. There are also serious social consequences associated with unemployment and underemployment. The loss of a job and unemployment are linked to depression and other mental health challenges.1 Given the high rates of unemployment seen in our sample and the high rates of suicide attempts noted in the Health chapter of this document, employment issues are of particular concern to transgender and gender non-conforming people. Field work for this study was done from September 2008 through February 2009, with a large majority completing questionnaires during September. Accordingly, the employment statistics here largely precede the widespread layoffs and double digit unemployment that the nation as a whole experienced as the economy moved into a major recession. The data that follow show that due to discrimination, study participants were experiencing very high rates of unemployment and extremely poor employment conditions. Given that respondents were faring worse than the nation as a whole before the recession led to large-scale layoffs, the data suggests that in the current crisis, transgender and gender non-conforming people are likely facing even higher unemployment than their gender-conforming peers. The data show not only the rampant discrimination against transgender and gender nonconforming people, but also show that large numbers have turned to the underground economy for income, such as sex work or drug sales, in order to survive. Throughout this chapter, we refer to this as “underground employment.”