Employment Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Florida

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.

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.

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