Gay + Lesbians Still Earn More Than Straights

A new survey has revealed that lesbians and gay men are continuing to earn more than their heterosexual peers, and spend their money on an increasingly diverse list of leisure activities.

The Out Now Consulting for Gay Times and Diva magazines research claims that the average income of lesbians in the UK is £24,783, while gay men now earn £34,168.

This means the lesbian and gay community now earns around £6,000 and £9,000 more than straight full time workers respectively.

A spokesperson for Out Now Consulting said their higher incomes mean lesbian and gay people are increasingly becoming a major focus of big businesses.

"Now that the market is able to be accurately measured, more companies are developing marketing plans to better position their brands to attract gay and lesbian customers," says Ian Johnson.

He said that companies as diverse as Barclays Bank, British Telecom (BT), HMV and British Airways are now targeting lesbian and gay consumers through both online and print gay media.

“These companies are assessing their products, their communications and their distribution strategies to improve their gay market positioning. This trend seems set to continue with the improved insight into this market provided by this new research."

Lesbians and gay men are currently spending the bulk of their wealth on CDs (£800m a year), DVDs (£843m) and holidays – more than £3 billion was spent by lesbians and gay men on tourism last year, according to the study.

Additionally, high tech gadgets and mobile phones featured heavily in the biggest consumer products available.

"These survey results show that, when it comes to new technology and media products, gay men and lesbians are quick to adapt," Kim Watson, Deputy Managing Director at MPG - publisher of Diva and Gay Times magazines added.

http://uk.gay.com/headlines/9511

I thought this was an interesting story, seems that gay individuals still earn more than their straight counterparts.

Its also interesting to see some of the breakdowns of how that money is spent, who would have thought we spent £800m (about $1.2billion dollars) on music, lets just hope that wasnt all spent on Kylie + Madonna LOL

Regards,

Lee