A new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that while 48% of surveyed LGBTQ employees felt it was important for employers to participate in Pride Month activities, an even larger share (59%) wanted employers to publicly take supportive positions on LGBTQ policy issues. Similar percentages believed it was important for their employer to provide financial support to LGBTQ organizations (52%) and to visibly include LGBTQ people in their advertising (49%).
While over half of LGBTQ employees felt employer support was important, only a little more than one-third said their employers publicly support LGBTQ issues (36%) or provide financial support to LGBTQ organizations and causes (38%).
Younger LGBTQ employees ages 18 to 34 and those more vulnerable to discrimination and harassment, such as transgender and nonbinary workers and people of color, were more likely to have felt that it was important that their employers show visible support for LGBTQ people and issues.
“Pride Month provides an opportunity for employers to honor the contributions of their LGBTQ employees and to publicly reaffirm their commitment to a safe, equitable, and inclusive workplace,” said lead author Neko Michelle Castleberry, Research Data Analyst at the Williams Institute. “However, our study shows that LGBTQ employees are looking for more substantive forms of support that extend beyond participation in Pride Month activities.”
Researchers analyzed survey data collected from 1,902 LGBTQ employees in the summer of 2023 to examine the importance of employer support for Pride Month and the LGBTQ community more broadly.
Results show that LGBTQ-supportive actions were related to job satisfaction and retention. Over 90% of LGBTQ employees whose employers had taken visible supportive actions reported being satisfied with their current job, compared with less than three-fourths of those whose employers had not. In addition, LGBTQ employees whose employers had not taken visible supportive actions were about twice as likely to report having considered leaving their current job as those whose employers had taken such actions.
LGBTQ employees whose employers took visible supportive actions were more likely to report being out to their supervisor than those whose employers had not. Approximately two-thirds of LGBTQ employees whose employers had shown visible support for LGBTQ communities reported being out to their supervisors, compared with less than half of those whose employers had not.
“By not engaging in visible supportive activities, employers may signal to LGBTQ employees that the workplace is neither a supportive environment nor a place where they can be out,” said study author Brad Sears, Distinguished Senior Scholar of Law and Policy at the Williams Institute. “Employers who do not publicly support LGBTQ communities risk losing LGBTQ employees, particularly younger employees, trans and nonbinary employees, and LGBTQ employees of color.”