Jenny Berrill

“Our aim is to raise awareness of employment and income differences between transgender and non-transgender persons and investigate the implications for self-employment and other labour market outcomes.” 

Professor Jenny Berrill

Project Name: Labour Market Outcomes for Transgender Persons

Problem addressed by the research

Transgender persons are often subject to strong stigma in society and the labour market. In the US, it was legal to dismiss someone for their sexual orientation, sex or gender identity until the 2020 Supreme Court ruling. Yet there is a lack of research on which to base future policy to reduce the economic inequality of transgender persons.

Project description

Professor Jenny Berrill’s research, conducted with her research collaborators (Damien Cassells, NUI Maynooth and Klavs Ciprikis, Economic and Social Research Institute), analyses labour market outcomes of transgender persons. They take an interdisciplinary approach across the areas of labour economics, entrepreneurship and social science. The research provides context for appropriate public policy considerations to improve labour market outcomes and mitigate inequalities experienced by transgender persons.

Project outcomes so far

The first step of the project focused exclusively on US data (Ciprikis et al., 2020). More recent analysis uses UK data, and the next step is to expand this analysis to Ireland and other markets. Initial outputs from this project were included by the UK Parliament: The Women and Equalities Committee as part of their considerations on the Reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2020.

For more information

• Ciprikis, K., Cassells, D. and Berrill, J. (2020) Transgender labour market outcomes: Evidence from the United States, Gender, Work & Organization, 27(6): 1378-1401.
• Ciprikis, K., Cassells, D. and Berrill, J. (2024) Transgender Self-Employment Outcomes: Evidence from the USA, Small Business Economics, 63, 871-896.