The California Transgender Workplace Project will incentivize owners and managers to hire transgender workers for entry level positions by offering to pay for the first 60 hours of a new hire’s wages. Created in collaboration with one of the largest industry groups for restaurants, the California Restaurant Association, the Project has been spearheaded by Michaela Mendelsohn, a business owner who also identifies as a trans woman.
The transgender community’s unemployment rate is twice that of the general population, and matters are even worse for transgender people of color. Often, trans people face discrimination in both the hiring process and during the course of employment itself, making it both harder to find and harder to hold a job.