A new report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that most LGBTQ+ employees want employer support to extend beyond Pride Month. The study found that 59% of surveyed LGBTQ+ employees want employers to publicly take positions on LGBTQ+ policy issues, while 48% said it was important for employers to participate in Pride Month activities.
Of the respondents surveyed, 52% also said it was important for employers to provide financial support to LGBTQ+ organizations. The survey showed that 49% wanted employers to include LGBTQ+ people in advertising.
The report found a gap between employee expectations and employer action. Only 36% of respondents said their employers publicly support LGBTQ+ issues, and only 38% said their employers provide financial support to LGBTQ+ organizations or causes.
The report found that younger LGBTQ+ employees, ages 18 to 34, along with transgender, nonbinary and LGBTQ+ employees of color, were more likely than other groups to say visible employer support was important to them.
Researchers analyzed survey data from 1,902 LGBTQ+ employees collected in the summer of 2023 to assess how employees view employer support for Pride Month and the LGBTQ+ community.
The report also linked visible employer support to job satisfaction and retention. More than 90% of LGBTQ+ employees whose employers had taken visible supportive action reported job satisfaction, compared with less than three-fourths of those whose employers had not. Employees whose employers had not taken such action were about twice as likely to say they had considered leaving their job.
The report also found that LGBTQ+ employees were more likely to be out to their supervisors when their employers had shown visible support of the LGBTQ+ community. Two-thirds reported being out at work compared with less than half beibng out at companies without such support.
“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 Neko Michelle Castleberry, the report’s lead author and a research data analyst at the Williams Institute. Study author Brad Sears, a distinguished senior scholar of law and policy at the institute, said “Employers who do not publicly support LGBTQ communities risk losing LGBTQ employees, particularly younger employees, trans and nonbinary employees, and LGBTQ employees of color.”
