Inflation is hitting LGBTQ+ Americans harder – smart employers can help

theguardian.com:

It’s no secret that workers’ income is not keeping up with inflation. Analysis from the Brookings Institution thinktank found that although some big companies had increased total compensation, those increases were less than half the going rate of inflation. And inflation at that time was about 7% – it’s sincejumped to 8.6%. Other studies have shown that one in five American workers are living paycheck to paycheck. Overall hourly wages, according to the US government, have increased about 6% over the past year, a healthy rise, but still not enough to keep up with the cost of living.

Now, a new study released in Pride month from the insurance company Nationwide finds that one group of workers appears to be hit harder by inflation than others. That group are members of the LGBTQ+ community.

According to the report – which surveyed 1,000 nationally representative adult US consumers and 1,000 members of the LGBTQ+ community in late April – almost two-thirds of LGBTQ+ Americans said that they were living paycheck to paycheck “most of the time” and that figure jumped to 72% for Black LGBTQ+ people. LGBTQ+ survey respondents indicated they were less knowledgable than the general population about important financial topics, including retirement planning (by 13%), estate planning (12%) and investing in the stock market (8%).

Nationwide says that as many as two-thirds of LGBTQ+ Americans reported facing “unique” financial challenges that most non-LGBTQ+ people do not. These challenges include having their careers being “negatively impacted” by their gender identity or sexual orientation, as well as higher than average healthcare and health insurance costs than non-LGBTQ+ workers. These individuals also report higher healthcare costs