Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/62580 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6766
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Progress in narrowing black-white earnings differences has been far from continuous, with some of the apparent progress resulting from labor force withdrawal among lower-skilled African Americans. This paper builds on prior research and documents racial and ethnic differences in male earnings from 1950 through 2010 using data from the decennial census and American Community Surveys. Emphasis is given to annual rather than weekly or hourly earnings. Treatment of imputed earnings greatly affects measured outcomes. We take a quantile approach, providing evidence on medians and other percentiles of the distribution. Black male joblessness rose to over 40% in 2010, the median black-white earnings gap being the largest in at least sixty years. The experience of black men contrasts with that of Hispanic men during the last decade, who exhibited earnings growth similar to white men. Black men are being left behind economically, a process exacerbated by weak labor market conditions.
Subjects: 
inequality
race
earnings
wages
median regression
imputed earnings
JEL: 
J15
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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