Effect of Sexual Orientation on Job Satisfaction: Evidence from Greece

• Author: Nick Drydakis
• Date: 01 January 2015
• Published date: 01 January 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12080

Effect of Sexual Orientation on Job Satisfaction:

Evidence from Greece

*

NICK DRYDAKIS

This study investigates the differences in four aspects of job satisfaction between

gay males/lesbians and heterosexuals. Gay males and lesbians are found to be less

satisfied, according to all job satisfaction measures considered. Moreover, gay

males and lesbians whose orientation was known at their workplace had higher

job satisfaction than gay males and lesbians who had not disclosed their orienta-

tion. Furthermore, gay males and lesbians were found to become more satisfied

with their jobs with time after disclosing their sexual orientation.

Introduction

Previous socioeconomic research on job satisfaction

1

has addressed hetero-

geneous effects between sexes (Clark 1997; Gazioglu and Tansel 2006), health

conditions (Drydakis 2012a; Uppal 2005), and ethnicities (Campbell 2011).

The current study examines the relation between job satisfaction and sexual

orientation, utilizing data from the 2008–2010 Athens Area Study (AAS). The

current paper adds to the literature with a dataset that specifically questions

male and female employees on four aspects of job satisfaction: satisfaction

with total pay, satisfaction with promotion prospects, satisfaction with respect

received from one’s supervisor, and total job satisfaction. In this study, to

* The authors’affiliations is, Department of Economics and International Business, Anglia Ruskin Univer-

sity, Cambridge, UK; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn,Germany; Scientific Centre for the Study

of Discrimination, Athens, Greece Email: nick.drydakis@anglia.ac.uk.

JEL: J28, C93, J7, J16, J31, J42, J64, J71.

The author would like to thank Lee Badgett and Christopher Carpenter for their helpful advice and com-

ments and acknowledges benefit from two anonymous referees, whose comments and suggestions signifi-

cantly improved previous versions of this paper. The author also greatly benefited from comments and

suggestions of participants at the workshop Sexual Orientation Discrimination in the Labor Market, Paris

2012, on an early draft of the paper.

1

The construct of job satisfaction is generally defined as a positive emotional state that reflects an affec-

tive response to a job situation (Locke 1976, 1984). There are two types of job satisfaction (Mueller and

Kim 2008): global job satisfaction, which refers to employees’overall feeling about their jobs, and job facet

satisfaction, which refers to feelings about specific job aspects, such as wages, promotion prospects, and the

quality of the relationships with one’s supervisor and coworkers (Spector 2008).

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determine whether a job satisfaction gap exists, the job satisfaction of gay

male/lesbian employees is compared to the job satisfaction of heterosexual

employees, holding all other factors constant (Clark 1997). The 2008–2010

AAS includes a large number of control variables, such as education, age, sex-

ual orientation, job characteristics, objective health conditions, and adverse

mental health symptoms. These variables are correlated with job satisfaction,

so their inclusion is important when studying the relation between sexual ori-

entation and job satisfaction (Clark 1996). In addition, the 2008–2010 AAS

includes information on two different aspects of sexual orientation; namely,

openness about being homosexual at the current workplace and years since

coming out as a gay male/lesbian at the current job. It is possible to take

advantage of this rich information to evaluate the job satisfaction of sexual

orientation minorities and offer new outcomes.

Data limitations in Greece remain a major obstacle to research on the gay and

lesbian population. Only three studies have focused on the labor market success

of sexual orientation minorities. Drydakis (2009) and Drydakis (2011) found

that gay males and lesbians face lower occupational access and are offered lower

entry wages, while Drydakis (2012b) estimated that gay and bisexual men face a

higher unemployment rate and receive lower monthly wages than their hetero-

sexual counterparts. The above findings indicate that the current social situation

of gay/bisexual and lesbian people represents a problem for Greece. Research

studies in the United States and EU suggest that gay males and lesbians who are

subject to unequal treatment at work describe a variety of experiences that range

from discomfort and signs of embarrassment on the part of managers and col-

leagues, to exclusion and insults by colleagues (Badgett et al. 2007; European

Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 2009; Sears and Mallory 2011). More-

over, researchers recount instances of institutionalized procedures to restrict offi-

cially conferred work rewards, such as promotions, salary increases, and

increased job responsibilities (Badgett et al. 2007).

In view of these facts, one might expect that gay males and lesbians are

more likely to report lower job satisfaction, as discrimination is believed to

increase workplace dissatisfaction

2

(B€

ockerman and Ilmakunnas 2009; Cardo

1994; Sanchez and Brock 1996). Because we expect to find low job satisfac-

tion due to the disadvantaged position of gay males and lesbians in the labor

2

There is evidence that job satisfaction may be an important variable in the inequality in the overall

returns of work (B€

ockerman and Ilmakunnas 2009; Drydakis 2012c; Ensher, Grant-Vallone, and Donaldson

2001; Hamermesh 2001). Studies show that racial discrimination and sexual discrimination at the workplace

contribute to higher work tension and job stress and decreased job satisfaction and organizational commit-

ment (Mays, Coleman, and Jackson 1996; Sanchez and Brock 1996; Shields and Wheatley Price 2002a,

2002b).

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