Sexual Orientation and Multiple Job Holding

Evidence from Swedish Administrative Data

Christopher Carpenter, Erwan Dujeancourt, Samuel J. Mann, Lucia Naldi

ResearchPosted on rand.org Jun 18, 2025Published in: Journal of Human Resources, Volume 60, Issue 3 (May 2025). doi:10.3368/jhr.0324-13477R1

We use Swedish administrative data from 2001-2021 to study sexual orientation and multiple job holding. We identify over 19,000 employed individuals who ever entered a legal same-sex union and compare their outcomes with all employed individuals who were only ever in different-sex unions. We find that sexual minority individuals are significantly more likely than otherwise similar heterosexual individuals to hold multiple jobs. We explore four mechanisms: financial constraints, self-insurance, career mobility, and job heterogeneity. We find evidence in line with self-insurance mechanisms for sexual minority men. For women, we find that career mobility is a likely explanation.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
  • Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
  • Availability: Non-RAND
  • Year: 2025
  • Pages: 35
  • Document Number: EP-70955

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