Workplace Experiences of Nonbinary Employees

Executive Summary

This report examines experiences of employment discrimination and harassment against nonbinary adults using a survey of 1,902 LGBTQ adults in the workforce, including 163 nonbinary adults, conducted in the summer of 2023. We compare the experiences of nonbinary employees with those of cisgender LGBQ employees and transgender employees who do not identify as nonbinary.

The majority of nonbinary adults in the workforce are under age 35 (87%), and half (51%) are people of color. About three-quarters (74%) of nonbinary people in the workforce are making less than $50,000 a year.

Our analysis indicates that employment discrimination against nonbinary employees is persistent and widespread. At some point in their lives, about six in 10 nonbinary employees (59%) reported experiencing discrimination or harassment at work (including being fired, not hired, not promoted, or verbally, physically, or sexually harassed) because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Many nonbinary employees reported recent experiences of discrimination and harassment. Within the past year, 16% of nonbinary employees reported that they had been fired, not hired, or not promoted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and 20% reported experiencing harassment at work. One in four (26%) nonbinary employees reported experiencing adverse treatment because of their LGBTQ status at their current job.

Many nonbinary employees also reported engaging in actions to avoid discrimination and harassment, including hiding their nonbinary identity and changing their appearance or behaviors. Nearly half (45%) of nonbinary employees were not out to their current supervisor, and 17% were not out to any of their co-workers. Two-thirds (67%) of nonbinary employees reported downplaying their LGBTQ status at work by doing one or more of the following: changing their speech, mannerisms, appearance, or how they dress at work; avoiding work social events; or not talking about their outside activities at work.

Nearly six in 10 (58%) nonbinary employees have looked for another job because of how they were treated based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at work, and half (50%) reported leaving a job because of such treatment.

Along many measures of adverse workplace experiences, nonbinary employees fall in between cisgender LGBQ employees and transgender employees who do not identify as nonbinary, with cisgender LGBQ employees reporting the lowest rates of adverse experiences and transgender employees reporting the highest. In many cases, nonbinary employees’ reports of adverse workplace experiences were closer to the higher levels reported by transgender employees. While the report’s key findings are summarized below, the full report includes quotes from respondents to provide more detail about their experiences of discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

Key Findings

Demographics

• An estimated 87% of nonbinary adults in the workforce are under the age of 35, compared to 51% of cisgender LGBQ adults and 71% of transgender adults in the workforce.
• About half (51%) of nonbinary adults in the workforce are people of color.
• Over 58% of nonbinary adults in the workforce identified as bisexual, 21% selected “something else,” and 4% selected “not sure” to describe their sexual orientation.
• Almost three-quarters are making less than $50,000 a year (74%), compared to less than half (48%) of cisgender LGBQ adults in the workforce.

Lifetime Experiences of Discrimination and Harassment

• At some point in their lives, about six in 10 nonbinary employees (59%) reported experiencing discrimination or harassment at work, including being fired, not hired, not promoted, or verbally, sexually, or physically harassed because of their gender identity.
  • Discrimination: Forty-five percent of nonbinary employees reported experiencing at least one form of employment discrimination (being fired, not hired, not promoted, or being denied other workplace opportunities) because of their sexual orientation or gender identity at some point in their lives.
    • About one in four nonbinary employees reported being fired (23%) and/or not hired (28%) because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
    • Nonbinary employees also described other types of unfair treatment based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Some of these experiences included having their shifts changed or their hours reduced, being isolated from other employees or customers, and being excluded from company events.
  • Harassment: Half of nonbinary employees (50%) reported experiencing at least one form of harassment (verbal, physical, or sexual) at work because of their sexual orientation or gender identity at some point in their lives.
    • Forty percent of nonbinary employees reported experiencing verbal harassment from supervisors or co-workers because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Many nonbinary respondents cited examples of being persistently misgendered, deadnamed, or harassed for not conforming to traditional binary genders or gender stereotypes.
    • About one in five (21%) nonbinary employees reported experiencing physical harassment at work because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Reports of physical harassment included being “threatened,” “cornered,” “roughhoused,” “assaulted,” “attacked,” and “strangled.”
    • Close to one-third (31%) of nonbinary employees reported experiencing sexual harassment at work because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Intersectional Discrimination and Harassment

• When asked to describe their worst experiences of discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, many nonbinary employees described intersectional discrimination based on their multiple marginalized identities. Most frequently, in addition to discrimination based on their gender identity, they described discrimination related to being bisexual or based on living with a disability.

Recent Experiences of Discrimination and Harassment

• Discrimination: About one in three nonbinary employees (35%) reported experiencing at least one form of employment discrimination (including being fired, not hired, or being denied a promotion or other workplace opportunities) based on their sexual orientation or gender identity within the past five years. One in six (16%) reported these experiences in the past year.
• Harassment: Four out of ten nonbinary employees (39%) reported experiencing at least one form of harassment (including verbal, physical, or sexual harassment) in the workplace based on their sexual orientation or gender identity within in the past five years and one in five reported (20%) reported these experiences in the past year.
• Negative comments: In the past year, about half of nonbinary employees (49%) reported hearing negative comments about LGBTQ people in the workplace.

Experiences at Current Job

• Respondents were asked specifically about their experiences at their current job. About two-thirds of nonbinary employees (64%) felt that their current workplace environment was somewhat or very supportive of LGBTQ employees. In comparison, approximately one in ten (13%) felt their workplace environment was somewhat or very unsupportive.
• Approximately one in five nonbinary employees (20%) reported one or more adverse workplace experiences related to their sexual orientation or gender identity at their current job, including 18% who reported unfair treatment, 11% who reported verbal harassment, 7% who felt they had not been promoted or were denied other opportunities in the workplace, 6% who reported sexual harassment, and 1% who reported physical harassment.

Out at Work

• Forty-five percent of nonbinary employees reported that they are not open about being nonbinary to their current supervisor, and approximately one in six (17%) reported that they are not out to any of their co-workers. Only one-third (33%) of nonbinary employees reported being out to all their co-workers.

Covering

• Two-thirds of nonbinary employees (67%) reported engaging in covering behaviors at their current jobs to avoid harassment or discrimination related to their sexual orientation or gender identity. About one-third reported changing how they dressed (35%), their physical appearance (35%), or their voice or mannerisms (36%) at work. Approximately one in five (20%) have changed where, when, or how frequently they used the bathroom.
• Many nonbinary employees have also avoided work events or work-related travel (25%) and work-related social events (39%) to avoid discrimination and harassment.
• Many nonbinary employees also avoid talking about their families at work to avoid discrimination and harassment. Twenty-nine percent of nonbinary employees have avoided talking about their family at work, 24% have not brought family to work events, and 21% have not displayed photos of their partner or family at work to avoid discrimination and harassment.

Retention

• About two-thirds of nonbinary employees (68%) were very or somewhat satisfied with their current job, while almost one in six (17%) were very or somewhat dissatisfied with their current job.
• Half (50%) of nonbinary employees reported that they had left a job at some point in their lives because of how their employer treated them based on their LGBTQ status. About six in 10 nonbinary employees said that they have looked for other jobs because of how they were personally treated by their employer based on their LGBTQ status (58%) or had looked for another job because the workplace environment was not supportive of LGBTQ people (60%).
• Due to the workplace environment for LGBTQ people at their current job, one in five nonbinary employees (20%) had considered leaving. Almost two-thirds (65%) of them had taken steps towards finding another job.
• Nonbinary employees were more likely than cisgender LGBQ employees to have left a job (50% vs. 31%) or looked for another job (58% vs. 32%) because of how they were treated because of their LGBTQ status. Compared to cisgender LGBQ employees, they were also more likely to report they had looked for another job due to the general workplace environment for LGBTQ employees (60% vs. 36%).

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