Abstract: Employment Insecurity Among a Nationally Representative Sample of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults (Society for Social Work and Research 30th Annual Conference Anniversary)

Schedule:

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Monument, ML 4 (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)

* noted as presenting author

Maiya Hotchkiss, MSW, PhD Student, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Eric Rice, PhD, Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Lindsay Young, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Hans Oh, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

John Prindle, PhD, Research Faculty, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

John Blosnich, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Background and Purpose: Transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals experience greater social adversity and negative social determinants of health compared to cisgender people. Employment security in particular is a strong predictor of health and is an unmet need among TGNC. Thus, employment-focused interventions may be a promising prevention method for TGNC health disparities. However, nationally representative research on employment characteristics among TGNC individuals is scarce. To address this gap, this study explores differences in employment security indicators by gender minority status in a nationally representative, probability-based sample of adults in the United States.

Methods: Participants were 26,245 adults (23,096 cisgender, 264 TGNC, 2,885 unknown gender identity) from the 2020, 2021, and 2022 U.S. Federal Reserve Survey of Household Economics and Decision-making. Employment security indicators included past-month gig work engagement and income variation month-to-month. Multiple logistic regression analyses compared differences between TGNC and cisgender respondents for each outcome. All multivariable analyses were weighted for complex sampling design.

Results: TGNC participants reported significantly higher prevalence of past month gig work engagement relative to cisgender participants (17.2% versus 8.9%, respectively) and income variation relative to cisgender participants (44.2% versus 28.4%, respectively). Adjusting for survey year, age, sex assigned at birth, race, ethnicity, education, and marital status, TGNC participants had significantly higher odds of gig work engagement (aOR = 1.73, 95% CI = 1.21-2.48, p<.01) and income variation (aOR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.07-1.83, p<.05) when using cisgender participants as the reference group.

Conclusions and Implications: Among our nationally representative sample, TGNC participants reported indicators of worse employment security compared to cisgender participants. Predictably, some of the strongest covariates of employment security and program use included age, race, education, and marital status. These findings highlight the persistent disparities in employment security faced by diverse TGNC individuals and underscore the need for targeted policies and programs that address the intersecting influences of demographic factors on economic stability. Future research should pursue additional details on employment precarity, including types of labor, workplace conditions and experiences, and employment benefits.