The truth about the lesbian pay premium

Some lesbian and gay campaigners might have you believe that life is hard for gay people. Of course, for many it is. But my experience of being a lesbian is that it is mostly a privilege rather than an oppression. Lesbians can avoid the multiple disadvantages of navigating relationships with men, some of whom have absorbed messages of how they are superior to women. There’s another perk, too: what the Financial Times calls the ‘lesbian pay premium’. An analysis of studies from 1991 to 2018 found that lesbians typically earn 7 per cent more than their heterosexual counterparts.

That life is good for lesbians in Britain is not something we should take for granted. When I came out as a lesbian in 1977 at the age of 15 it wasn’t illegal for people to discriminate against me. I was bullied at school and nobody cared.