Impact of Proposed Cuts to Federal Workforce on LGBTQ Employees

The Williams Institute has published a series of reports exploring the workplace experiences of LGBTQ public sector employees, including federal government employees.1 Over one in ten LGBTQ adults in the workforce are employed in the public sector. The public sector is a particularly important source of employment for LBTQ cisgender and transgender women, younger LGBTQ workers, and those with college degrees.2 Proposed cuts to the federal workforce and spending could impact as many as 314,000 LGBTQ employees of the federal government, federal contractors, and the United States Postal Service (USPS).3

Proposed Cuts to Federal Employment and Spending

Through the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the Trump Administration has started planning for a drastic reduction to the federal workforce. Elon Musk has suggested that the new agency will cut $2 trillion, or approximately 30%, of the $6.8 trillion federal budget.4  As a presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy proposed to cut the federal workforce by 75%.5 More specifically, plans to cut the federal workforce could include the following:
• Slashing regulations and the need for federal employees to implement them
• Eliminating entire federal agencies
• Making tens of thousands of federal employees “at will” by reclassifying them into a “Schedule F” category
• Requiring all federal employees to pass a new civil service test “demonstrating an understanding of our constitutional, limited government”
• Eliminating all federal employees who are engaged in work related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility
• Privatizing the USPS6

The Department of Government Efficiency has further proposed pressuring federal employees to resign with administrative changes, including the following:
• Ending remote work options
• Making a five-day workweek a requirement for all federal employees
• Moving agencies out of Washington, D.C., which could cause many federal workers to leave voluntarily7

Potential Impact of Cuts on LGBTQ Workers

These proposed cuts and federal policy changes threaten the jobs of over 314,000 LGBTQ employees of the federal government, USPS, and federal contractors.
• Federal employees. There are almost 2.3 million (2,278,730) federal government employees, not including uniformed military personnel, USPS employees, employees of federal contractors, and employees of federal grants.8 According to the 2023 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, 7.3% of federal employees identified as LGBQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or another identity other than straight), and less than 1% (0.6%) identified as transgender.9 In other words, there are over 166,000 LGBQ federal employees and almost 14,000 transgender federal employees. Because most transgender people are also LGBQ, when combined, there are an estimated 169,000 LGBTQ federal employees.10

• Employees of federal contractors. While there are no federal government data on the number of employees working on federal contracts, recent executive orders requiring paid sick leave and setting a minimum wage for employees of federal contracts have estimated that those orders impact 1.7 million11 and 1.8 million workers,12 respectively. A recent report by the Williams Institute estimates that 5.9% of the overall adult workforce in the United States is LGBT.13 Since federal contractors include employers in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, we assume that the percentage of LGBT employees of federal contractors is similar to the percentage in the workforce overall. We estimate that there are over 106,000 LGBT employees of federal contractors.14
• United States Postal Service employees. The United States Postal Service is a quasi-government agency whose employees are not included in the counts of federal government employees.15 In 2023, there were 525,469 USPS employees.16 Assuming that the USPS has a similar percentage of LGBTQ employees as the overall federal workforce, there are over 38,000 LGBQ USPS employees and over 3,000 transgender USPS employees. Because most transgender people are also LGBQ, when combined, we estimate that there are a total of 39,000 LGBTQ USPS employees.17

Just six agencies employ two-thirds of federal workers: Veterans Affairs (21.4%), Homeland Security (9.8%), the Army (9.7%), Navy (9.5%), Air Force (7.4%), and the Department of Defense (6.9%).18 The percentage of employees identifying as LGBTQ at these agencies ranges from 4% to 9%.19 In terms of location, the jurisdictions with the largest number of federal employees are Washington D.C., California, Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Washington, Ohio, and New York.20 These jurisdictions include some with the highest unemployment rates in the country, such as Washington D.C., California, Washington, and New York,21 as well as states that lack state statutes that explicitly prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, such as Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky.22 If employment patterns for federal employees are similar to those for the public sector more broadly, reductions in federal employment are most likely to impact LBTQ women and younger LGBTQ employees disproportionately working in the public sector.23 Further, the fact that LGBTQ public sector employees are more likely to have a college degree than LGBTQ private sector employees also means that there will be a loss of jobs with higher earnings potential and career stability.24

Conclusion

Reducing the number of federal employees could impact as many as 314,000 LGBTQ employees of the federal government, USPS, and federal contractors. Among LGBTQ employees, a cut in the federal workforce will disproportionately impact LBTQ women, younger LGBTQ people, and those with a college degree. In short, a reduction in federal workers will mean the loss of good jobs for members of the LGBTQ community who already face additional challenges in the workforce because of their multiple marginalized identities.

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