Does It Get Better? Recent Estimates of Sexual Orientation and Earnings in the United States

Using 2013–2015 National Health Interview Survey data, we reproduce a well-documented finding that self-identified lesbians earn significantly more than comparable heterosexual women. These data also show—for the first time in the literature—that self-identified gay men also earn significantly more than comparable heterosexual men, a difference on the order of 10% of annual earnings. We discuss several possible explanations for the new finding of a gay male earnings premium and suggest that reduced discrimination and changing patterns of household specialization are unlikely to be the primary mechanisms.