Lesbian couples have greater vulnerability to poverty

POVERTY IN US LESBIAN AND GAY COUPLE HOUSEHOLDS

Alyssa Schneebaum and M. V. Lee Badgett

ABSTRACT

Poverty is a widely researched topic in economics. However, despite growing research on the economic lives of lesbians and gay men in the United States since the mid 1990s, very little is known about poverty in same-sex couple households. This study uses American Community Survey data from 2010 to 2014 to calculate poverty rates for households headed by different-sex versus same-sex couples. Comparing households with similar characteristics, the results show that those headed by same-sex couples are more likely to be in poverty than those headed by different-sex married couples. Despite that overall disadvantage, a decomposition of the poverty risk shows that same-sex couples are protected from poverty by their higher levels ofeducation and labor force participation, and their lower probability of having a child in the home. Lastly, the role of gender – above and beyond sexual orientation – is clear in the greater vulnerability to poverty for lesbian couples.

Interesting that lesbians live in more rural areas.

Increasing the benefits of characteristics that reduce poverty: 

The decompositions show that same-sex couples are more likely to be poor in the basic predictive model because they do not get as much protective value, or returns, to characteristics that reduce poverty. The one clear factor that hurts lesbians, in particular, is living in more rural areas, where people may have more negative attitudes toward LGBT people.

Unmarried different-sex couples more likely to be poor.

Lesbians are most likely to be in poverty, confirming the expectations laid out earlier in the paper; they are 2.4 percentage points more likely to be in poverty than different-sex married couples. Gay couples are 1 percentage point more likely to be in poverty than different-sex married couples. Unmarried different-sex couples are 2.1 percentage points more likely to be poor than married different-sex couples.

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