Survey: 43% of gay men have faced homophobia by colleagues

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A survey by gay dating website Gaydar shows 26% of gay men are not open about their sexuality at work and 43% have faced homophobia by colleagues.

The “Gay in the Workplace” study of over 4,500 members of Gaydar.net also surveyed views about professions.

Education is the most common sector among Gaydar respondents, with over 9% working as teachers, professors and lecturers. 1% were engineers, 1% analysts, 1% police officers and 0.2% scientists.

Despite the average salary in the UK being £26,000, 18% of respondents revealed that their earnings are £50,000 or more, with 4% in the £100,000 or above pay bracket. A further 27% are in the £31-49,000 bracket.

The top gay earners are London based, with almost one in four (23%) earning £50 – £100,000 a year, and 7% having an annual salary of £100,000 or above.

London is also the city with the least amount of low paid gay employees – only 7% are earning under £16,000 while 11% earn between £17,000 and £24,000.

Plymouth is ranked as having the lowest paid gay professionals, with 21% earning under £16,000 and 18% earning £17-24,000.

The highest paying jobs among gay men in the UK – where there annual salary is £100,000 – are directors (25%), lawyers and solicitors (23%) and consultants (14%), while the lowest paid roles are shop workers (70%), bar staff (62%) and chefs (45%), all earning under £16,000.

Respondents considered the top three stereotypically gay professions to be hairdressers (70%), air stewards (67%) and dancers (39%). However, results showed that less than 1% of Gaydar users actually work in these roles.

In August, a survey by Stonewall found that one in five gay employees have experienced verbal bullying from colleagues, customers or service users in the past five years. A quarter said they were “not at all open” to colleagues about their sexual orientation.