Thread by @eliselgould

One of the most striking features of US racial inequality is just how stubborn the wage gap between black and white workers has remained over the last four decades.
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epi.org/blog/stark-bla…
@EconomicPolicy

The widening of the already stark black-white divide in wages was evident in @EconomicPolicy’s State of Working America Wages report that highlights trends in wages across the wage distribution, by education, as well as by gender, race, and ethnicity.
epi.org/publication/st…
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In this thread, I’m going to highlight one particular worsening wage gap and look at it from multiple dimensions. Since 2000, by any way it’s measured, the wage gap between black and white workers has grown significantly.
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The findings here support the important research by @ValerieRWilson and @WMRodgersIII , which shows that black-white wage gaps expanded with rising wage inequality from 1979 to 2015.
epi.org/publication/bl…
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Where @ValerieRWilson and @WMRodgersIII’s research is incredibly comprehensive, the trends outlined here are rudimentary, but reinforce the same basic truths.
epi.org/blog/stark-bla…
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Here, I’ve collected some of the main findings on the black-white wage gap found both in the latest @EconomicPolicy State of Working America wages report as well as the State of Working America data library.
epi.org/data/
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Using various measures, I analyze the black-white wage gap, highlighting the gaps in wages in 2000 (the last time the economy was closest to full employment), 2007 (the last business cycle peak before the Great Recession), and 2018 (the latest data available).
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This figure shows the growth in the average gap, the gap for low, middle, and high wage workers, the gap for workers with a high school diploma, a college degree, and an advanced degree, and a regression-adjusted wage gap (controlling for age, gender, education, and region).
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It’s important to remember the historical and social context for differences in black and white labor market experiences and labor market outcomes. What we know from a host of economic research is that individual’s wages are not a simple function of individual ability.
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Instead of a simple function of individual talent or hard work, workers’ ability to claim higher wages rests on a host of social, political, and institutional factors outside their individual control.
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Given the long history of excluding black Americans from social and political institutions that can boost wage growth, the stubbornness of racial wage gaps is less surprising.
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At @Demos_Org, @ConnieRazza provides a powerful framework for examining the systematic social deprivation and economic disadvantage maintained and reinforced by those with economic and political power.
demos.org/publication/so…
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The black-white wage gap is smallest at the bottom of the wage distribution, where the minimum wage keeps the lowest wage black workers from even lower wages. Low-wage black workers (at their 10th percentile) are paid 9.2% less than 10th percentile white workers.
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Raising the federal minimum wage would disproportionately benefit black workers b/c they are over-represented among low wage workers and less likely to live in states that have passed a minimum wage that is higher than the current federal minimum.
epi.org/publication/th…
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The largest black-white wage gaps are found at the top. The 33.4% wage gap for the highest wage workers is due in part to occupational segregation, the disproportionate likelihood for white workers to occupy positions in the highest wage professions, and growing inequality.
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Occupational segregation is particularly devastating for black women who face a history of deep seated racial and gender discrimination.
Read @Nina_EBanks epi.org/blog/black-wom…
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In my field of economics, @RhondaVSharpe has documented the alarming lack of black economists and the failure of the profession to achieve a representative level of diversity across ethnicity, gender, and race: researchgate.net/publication/33…
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Fortunately, the American Economic Association’s Summer Program (aeaweb.org/about-aea/comm…) along with the recently formed #SadieCollective (sadietannerconference.org) are working to diversify the field.
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Education is not a panacea for closing black-white wage gaps. Again, this should not be shocking, as increased equality of educational access—as laudable a goal as it is—has been shown to have only small effects on class-based wage inequality. brookings.edu/blog/up-front/…
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Furthermore, racial wealth gaps have been almost entirely unmoved by a narrowing of the black-white college attainment gap, as demonstrated by @SandyDarity, @DarrickHamilton and others here: socialequity.duke.edu/sites/socialeq….
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Black workers can’t educate their way out of the gap. Even black workers with an advanced degree experience a significant and growing wage gap compared to their white counterparts.
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Black-white wage gaps widened in the full business cycle 2000-2007 and continued to grow in the Great Recession and its aftermath. Even though the black unemployment rate has fallen over the last several years, wage growth has remained particularly weak for black workers.
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Here @joshbivens_DC and @ben_zipperer present evidence in support of hopes that a high pressure labor market can improve relative labor market outcomes for black workers, particularly when it comes to labor force participation and work hours.
epi.org/publication/th…
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The data here suggest that wage growth continues to lag progress in employment.
epi.org/blog/stark-bla…
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While black workers continue to increase their educational attainment, occupational segregation persists, and employers continue to wield considerable leverage to dictate wage contracts, including ones that perpetuate discriminatory practices.
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Unfortunately, in lieu of stronger labor standards and worker bargaining power, it takes tighter and tighter labor markets for all workers to reap the rewards of a strong and growing economy.
epi.org/publication/th…
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I’m optimistic that black workers will see their wages rise as the economy moves towards genuine full employment. But it will take more than a couple of years of full employment to close racial wage gaps + compensate for years of lower wages, lower incomes and lower wealth.
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