Report

Employment Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Florida

March 2015

Florida’s employment non-discrimination law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity, leaving LGBT people in the state vulnerable to discrimination. Adding these characteristics to Florida’s existing law would provide protections to LGBT people and would not be costly or burdensome for the state to enforce.

Highlights
Discrimination against LGBT people in Florida has been documented in surveys, court cases, reports to community-based organizations, and the media.
Some local governments and private employers in Florida have adopted non-discrimination protections for LGBT people, but coverage is incomplete.
Public opinion in Florida supports the passage of non-discrimination protections for LGBT people.
Data Points
328,000
LGBT people age 16+ are in Florida’s workforce
Report

Executive Summary

More than 4% of the American workforce identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). Approximately 328,000 of these workers live in Florida. Florida does not have a statewide law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment.

This report summarizes recent evidence of sexual orientation and gender identity employment discrimination, explains the limited current protections from sexual orientation and gender identity employment discrimination in Florida, and estimates the administrative impact of passing a law prohibiting employment discrimination based on these characteristics in the state.

1

Key Findings

  • In total there are approximately 552,500 LGBT adults in Florida, including nearly 328,000 who are part of Florida’s workforce.2
  • Media reports and lawsuits document incidents of sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination against employees in Florida. These include reports from a city manager, school employees, a lab technician, a hospital employee, an airline employee, and several employees in the service and hospitality sector.
  • A recent survey in Florida reflects discrimination and negative attitudes toward LGBT people in the workplace. A 2010 University of North Florida survey found that 63% of LGBT faculty and staff reported that they had experienced at least one incident of bias or harassment on campus because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
  • When transgender people are surveyed separately, they report similar or higher levels of discrimination. For example, in response to a national 2010 survey, 81% of transgender people from Florida reported having experienced harassment or mistreatment at work, and 56%reported that they were fired, not hired, or denied a promotion because of their gender identity or expression.
  • National surveys also confirm that discrimination against LGBT workers persists. Most recently, a 2013 Pew Research Center survey found that 21% of LGBT respondents reported that they had been treated unfairly by an employer in hiring, pay, or promotions.
  • Census data show that in Florida, the median income of men in same-sex couples is 10% lower than men in different-sex marriages.
  • At least 31 Florida counties and municipalities provide protection from sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in employment by local ordinance.
  • Approximately 46% of Florida’s workforce is not covered by a local ordinance that prohibits sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in employment.3
  • Private companies may adopt internal non-discrimination policies to improve recruitment and retention of talented employees, to increase employee productivity and customer satisfaction, or to attract a larger customer base. Twenty-five Fortune 1000 companies headquartered in Florida prohibit discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation, and fourteen Fortune 1000 companies headquartered in Florida have gender identity non-discrimination policies.
  • Public opinion in Florida supports the passage of legal protections from workplace discrimination for LGBT people. A 2013 survey conducted in Florida found that 73% of respondents supported passage of the Competitive Workforce Act, legislation that would have added protections from sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination to existing state law. In addition, other polls find that 80% of Florida residents think that LGBT people experience a moderate amount to a lot of discrimination in the state.
  • Adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s current non-discrimination law would result in approximately 154 additional complaints being filed with the Florida Commission on Human Relations each year.
  • Because annual fluctuations in the number of discrimination complaints filed with the Florida Commission on Human Relations have varied from 36 to 2,120 complaints over the past five years, with no corresponding variation in the Commission’s budget, the anticipated new complaints based on sexual orientation and gender identity could likely be absorbed into the existing system with no need for additional staff and negligible costs.

Download the full report

Employment Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Florida

Findings of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, Florida Results, National Center for Transgender Gay and Lesbian Task Force, http://www.endtransdiscrimination.org/PDFs/ntds_state_fl.pdf.

These estimates were reached by applying the percentage of people in Florida that are LGBT (3.5%) to the population of Florida aged 16 years and older (15,364,895) and the number of people in the Florida civilian labor force (9,357,917), respectively. Gary J. Gates & Frank Newport, LGBT Percentage Highest in D.C., Lowest in North Dakota, Gallup, Feb. 15, 2013, http://www.gallup.com/poll/160517/lgbt-percentage-highest-lowest-north-dakota.aspx; American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau, American FactFinder, 2012 ACS Table DP03: Selected Economic Characteristics, 1-Year Estimates, available at
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_5YR_DP03.

Calculated by authors using data from the American Community Survey, 2010-2012 3-Year-Estimates & 2008-2012 5-Year-Estimates, Select Economic Characteristics tables (civilian labor force numbers) available at http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml (last visited July 30, 2014).