THE EXTENT OF THE DISPARITY

220Bdisparity annual$10,000average difference

Black wages today

Labor force participation for people of color

12.9%

Earnings for participating people of color in the labor force disparity

9.6%

The figures on page 142 really tell a story. They tell the story, even decades after such an organized movement like the Civil Rights Movement under such a powerful leader like Martin Luther King, Jr., racial injustice still reigns supreme in this country.

The difference between annual earnings of a white person vs a black person in America amounts to $10,000 annually. It’s a whopping figure and sometimes it proves the key difference between living in comfort vs stretched out to the max. Similarly, that much savings per year would be minimally required if a person is to get his family ahead in terms of any of the usual advantages of modern society: another car, owning a house, private schooling, family vacation, and so forth.

When you look at the total loss of earnings for the black labor force as a whole, compared to what should have been if systemic and other forms of discrimination were absent, the figure amounts to a mind-blowing 220 billions. That’s a huge, huge gap and one that I must admit, also applies in case of other personas of color especially Hispanics and Natives, to a similar degree.

This gap arises well before the paycheck day arrives, of course. In our country, even regions that are high in people of color representation find colored prospects struggling to land jobs, or worse, even find any jobs to apply to. For these reasons, a person of color is far more likely than a white person to settle with a low-paying, low-benefits job.

The McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility conducts detailed analysis of data from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. It finds stubborn and large gaps in both representation and wages at various levels of white-collar occupations. At the lower tier, jobs such as supervisors, school and postsecondary teachers, marketing managers, construction managers, accountants and auditors, computers and IT managers, etc. the representation gaps remain slightly larger than the wage gaps for the employed workforce.

At the higher occupation tier, such as lawyers, magistrates, software developers, physicians, public and private executives, and other high-level managers, the gaps increase to unconscionable levels. In general, the more you move upward to better-paying jobs, the greater the gaps in both representation and wages.

The graph below puts this in further context by comparing these gaps to other, lower-tier occupations in the survey:

As we can see, the aggregate representation and wage gaps are already huge (40%) in most regular jobs. However, as soon as we enter higher-paying job tiers, the gaps only increase, with the highest gap found at the top executive and managerial levels. The overall, aggregate gap at the white collar level amounting to 60% is outrageous and should be unthinkable in a country touted as “the land of opportunity.” But here we are...

Various forms of systemic discrimination and microaggression explain and add to the already existing economic burden both before securing and while holding the position. For instance, in an analysis of the field of law, McKinsey Institute finds regular and increasing drop-off between black figures relative to whites at increasing levels of the ladder from law school to positions in the field. Far more black students apply to get into law school, for instance, than the students who get in. The pattern repeats for graduating, then applying and getting into jobs, and then all over again for promotion and advancement at the job. Again, the drop-off increases the more you rise up the ladder.

Another way the gap machine operates at the higher occupation tier is through fewer opportunities to get in. While the majority population has other channels to acquire jobs. such as recommendations or internship routes, less number of blacks are afforded these channels. These gaps become even larger when you take intersectionality into account. For instance, most of the black women who work in managerial positions today were directly hired for the job. The percentage of black women who reached that spot through the regular promotion and advancement ladder is extremely low.

Similar gaps exist for lower-level jobs. Drop-offs start at the application stage and magnify at the advancement stage, where many workers starting from entry-level finally advance to managerial positions. Attrition rates are high for blacks in these jobs. For one or more reasons, not the least of them being harsher and oblique treatment at the job, no doubt, blacks find themselves letting go of their position and off the advancement ladder. Some of the pressures faced on job that Black surveys have revealed included trust deficit and lack of sponsorships and allyship at work.

From the start, so many of this country’s laws and public policies, which should serve as the scaffolding that guides progress, were instead designed explicitly to prevent people of color from fully participating. Moreover, these legal constructs are not some relic of antebellum or Jim Crow past but rather remain part of the fabric of American policymaking.

Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro writing for American Progress, August 7, 2019.