Lesbians earn significantly more than their heterosexual colleagues while gay men earn less, according to a World Bank study exposing unexpected links between sexuality and salary.
In Britain, lesbians are paid an average of eight per cent more than straight women, with the trend even more extreme in other western countries. In the US, the difference is 20 per cent.
Conversely gay men face a pay penalty, earning five per cent less than heterosexual men in the UK - rising to nine per cent in Germany and 12 per cent in Canada.
Dr Nick Drydakis, senior lecturer in economics at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK who authored the World Bank report, said pay differentials were explained by the career and lifestyle choices that gay women were more likely make.
"Lesbians may realise early in life that they will not marry into a traditional household," he said.