Thread by @LipstickEcon

Today is #BlackWomensEqualPay! Black women have to work until August 13, 2020, earn as much a White man earned in just 2019.

@CSanchezCumming and I dig into 5 ways to understand the persistent intersectional wage divide that Black women face. 1/9
equitablegrowth.org/five-ways-to-u…

Research from @MarkVinPaul, Khaing Zaw, @DarrickHamilton and @SandyDarity shows that the wage divide faced by Black women is intersectional, meaning that it is unique, and more than the sum of gender and racial wage gaps. 2/9
equitablegrowth.org/working-papers…

Over half is "unexplained" by human capital model. This means that Black women w/ equivalent edu, yrs of experience, in the same jobs, still earn 20 cents less/dollar than similar White men. This is simple discrimination. We need effective anti-discrimination enforcement. 3/9

The second highest contributing factor to Black women's wage divide is occupational segregation. Jobs associated with women, like care work jobs in healthcare, pay less overall, but this gendered penalty is the worst for Black women. 4/9
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

At last year's @NEAEcon @ASHE_ASSA conference, I saw Thomas Masterson of @LevyEcon present his joint research with @mlholder999 (I cannot wait for this paper to come out!!) finding that Black women are crowded into low-paying occupations, lowering overall wage levels. 5/9

It's not just individual characteristics. In my new paper Discrimination & Monopsony w/ Mark Stelzner, we show how historical racial wealth inequality & caregiving responsibilities limit Black women's job search, which gives employers monopsony power. 6/9 equitablegrowth.org/working-papers…

With monopsony increasing employers' ability to exploit, we need to foster worker power for Black women. Research by @JakeRosenfeld1 & @kleykamp finds that, among women, Black-White wage gaps would be lower without de-unionization. 7/9 ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Higher min wages would also help the wage divide, since Black women are over-represented low-wage workers.

Research by @EDerenoncourt & @cmontialoux found that 1966 min wage expansions ⬇️Black-White wage inequality, but min wage has stagnated since. 8/9
scholar.harvard.edu/files/ellorade…

The economy is not thriving as long as systemic discrimination continues to limit Black women's economic well-being, as shown on #BlackWomensEqualPayDay. As @janellecj says & @itsafronomics wrote for @EconomicPolicy, we must center "Black women best." 9/9 epi.org/blog/black-wom…