The Effects of Workers Sexual Orientation Disclosure in the Workplaces

Discrimination and hostility in the workplace prevents homosexual workers from performing their core functions on the job. Moreover, it introduces unnecessary costs by increasing absenteeism, lowering productivity, and fostering a less motivated, less entrepreneurial, and less committed workforce. By means an agent-based model we simulate the effects of an increasing of sexual orientation disclosure in the workplaces. We test the effects on workers utiliy, firms’ profit, level of satisfaction and segregation. The results show a complessive improvement of the firms’ performances and a better job satisfaction for undeclared and homosexual workers and employers. With a homosexual employer we can observe an increasing of homosexual utility and firm profit, with a low decreasing of undeclared utility. Instead, with an undeclared employer the firm’s profit decreases but the total effect is positive. JEL – J16; J71; M54.