America Becoming Racial Trends and Their Consequences: Volume II (2001) / Chapter Skim
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6. Racial Trends in Labor Market Access and Wages: Women
6. Racial Trends in Labor Market Access and Wages: Women
Pages 124-151
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From page 124... ...
The Hispanic/White median weekly earnings ratio for year-round, full-time workers was 0.86:1 in 1980 but only 0.75:1 in 1996. The earnings ratio for Asian2 women, who have higher average earnings than White women, fell from 1.50:1 in 19883 to 1.38:1 in 1996.
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From page 125... ...
Earnings Inequality During the 1960s and the 1970s, the median earnings of Black women increased relative to earnings of White women, White men, and Black men (Figure 6-1~. Black/White female wages came closest to parity in 1975; from 1980 to 1996, the earnings of Black women relative to those of White women fell.
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From page 126... ...
Filipino women had an increase in relative income greater than that of Black women. Figure 6-2 charts the earnings of Hispanic, Asian, and Black women, as a ratio of earnings of White women, for year-round, full-time workers since 1974.
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From page 127... ...
Among women with 12 years of schooling, 43.7 percent would have had to change jobs in 1960 for equalized occupational distributions; 21.3 percent in 1980; 14 percent in 1990; and 16 percent in 1997.5 4 The index of occupational dissimilarity is 1/2~1Wi-bi 1 i where bi is the proportion of Black women who work in occupation i, and Hi is the proportion of White women who work in occupation i. If Black and White women were distributed equally across occupations, the value of the index would be 0.
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From page 129... ...
SOURCE: March Current Population Surveys, 19671996. lo 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 o 0.50.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 O,_ WW/WM BW/BM HW/HM -- -- AW/AM 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 FIGURE 6-3 Female/male earnings ratios by race.
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From page 130... ...
The indices for American women of Japanese, Filipino, and Puerto Rican background show the same pattern as for Black women. The occupational distributions have become markedly more similar since 1960.
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From page 131... ...
Figure 6-4 shows the change in the percentage of female workers employed in administrative and clerical work, by race, between 1960 and 1996. For women of Japanese and Chinese background, and White women, the percentages in this occupation decreased.
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From page 132... ...
For White women, the percentage employed as executives and managers was 4.3 percent in 1960 and 7.8 percent in 1980. Mexican American Black Puerto Rican Filipino White Chinese Japanese 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 Percentage change 0.1 0.12 FIGURE 6-5 Change in percentage of women employed as executives and managers, 1960-1990.
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From page 133... ...
Between 1975 and 1990, the gap between Black and White women increased, as Figure 6-6 illustrates. Hispanic women, both Mexican-American and Puerto Rican, have exceptionally high rates of unemployment compared to White women.
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From page 134... ...
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From page 136... ...
The principal tool used to investigate the role of human capital is a regression model. In the standard regression model, the dependent variable is the natural logarithm of earnings, and the set of explanatory variables includes measures of schooling, work experience, and indicators of marital and family status.
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From page 137... ...
Once all relevant productivity characteristics have been included in the model, the remaining pay difference is unexplained and attributable either to unmeasured differences in productivity (that could reflect premarket discrimination) or to labor-market discrimination.7 Using this methodology, a decrease in the earnings gap between Black and White women might be explained by either (1)
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From page 138... ...
Convergence of Earnings of Black and White Women, 1960 to 1975 The studies cited in this section, although not numerous,8 use different sources of data and different sets of explanatory variables.9 Nonetheless, they reach remarkably similar conclusions about the contributing factors: essentially that the improvement in relative earnings between 1950 and 1980 is explained primarily by (1) the expansion of employment opportunities outside of private-household service; and (2)
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From page 139... ...
Zalokar (1990:53) concludes: Although Black women's lower educational attainment in 1940 would undoubtedly have limited their occupational opportunities somewhat in any case, the extreme dissimilarity of Black and White women's occupations at that time implies that other factors, such as discrimination against Black women, played a far greater role than racial differences in educational attainment in keeping Black women out of occupations commonly held by White women.
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From page 140... ...
express skepticism of this explanation because young Blacks had "recently at least held their own relative to Whites in measures of reading proficiency, scientific knowledge and math achievement." Using data from the 1977 and 1986 NLS, they report a similar divergence in pay structures for women ages 23 to 28; in particular, the rate of return to education for Black women decreased relative to that of White women. Anderson and Shapiro (1996)
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From page 141... ...
Even if differences in AFQT scores do explain differences in wages, no study has investigated the ability of AFQT scores to explain the erosion of relative wages over time. Wages of Asian and Hispanic Women Earnings differentials between Hispanic and Asian and White women appear to be explained primarily by differences in characteristics.
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From page 142... ...
Hence, it is reasonable to expect that changes in productivity characteristics explain the decrease in relative wages. Asian women have higher average earnings than White women because they have higher educational attainment and more work experience, and they are more concentrated in professional occupations (Carlson and Swartz, 1988~.
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From page 143... ...
Comparable statistics for Mexican-American women having earned a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with White women, are as follows: in 1970, 2.3 percent compared with 13.8 percent; in 1980, 4.9 percent compared with 21.6 percent; in 1990, 6.2 percent compared with 27.9 percent. The gap increased 3 percent between 1980 and 1990 and 8 percent between 1970 and 1990.16 Given the growing premium paid for college diplomas, it is likely this gap in educational attainment contributed to the decrease in relative earnings of Mexican-American women.
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From page 144... ...
Using data from the 1976 SIE, Reimers estimates that differences in characteristics explain 95 percent of the gap between U.S.-born White and foreign-born Hispanic married women, and 83 percent of the gap between U.S.-born White and U.S.-born Hispanic married women. Differences in education, family size, language ability, and age of children contribute to lower LFPR in these groups.
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From page 145... ...
argued that Black women enjoyed an advantage relative to both Black men and White women because they represented a "double-minority" employers concerned about meeting affirmative action goals and timetables could count a Black woman as two minorities. In addition to this "advantage," the growth in demand for clerical workers and service workers in the 1960s and 1970s created opportunities for Black, White, and Hispanic women on a somewhat equal basis.
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From page 146... ...
In addition, as noted earlier, Black and Hispanic women have higher rates of unemployment and lower rates of labor-force participation than
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From page 147... ...
Racial differences in employment rates and in occupational distribution might reflect differences in tastes or in unobserved productivity characteristics. On the other hand, the persistence of occupational and employment disparities may reflect institutional factors, including discrimination in the employment process.
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From page 148... ...
Anderson, D., and D Shapiro 1996 Racial differences in access to high-paying jobs and the wage gap between Black and White women.
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From page 149... ...
Reyes 1999 The economic progress of Mexican and Puerto Rican women. In Latinas and African American Women at Work: Race, Gender and Economic Inequality, I
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From page 150... ...
Rosenberg 1993 Black female clerical workers: Movement toward equality with White women? Industrial Relations 32~2~:223-237.
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From page 151... ...
Subject Reports. Puerto Ricans in the United States.
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