Sunday, May 1 is the annual celebration of International Workers’ Day – also known as May Day – which honors the struggle of workers all around the world. While the LGBTQ movement typically focuses on nondiscrimination and healthcare insurance as issues in the workplace, the concerns of LGBTQ workers also include those not related to their sexuality or gender identity.
In fact, the Black Futures Lab found that low wages are the biggest concern facing Black LGB people, and many trans people – especially transgender people of color – report living on very low or no incomes.
Fighting for legal protections for jobs that don’t pay LGBTQ workers enough to live on does little to improve the daily conditions of low-wage LGBTQ workers and their families.
Addressing low wages and other work-related concerns requires a range of policy solutions as noted in the first national LGBTQ anti-poverty agenda and The National LGBTQ Anti-Poverty Action Network’s memo to the Biden Administration.