Study shows growing race gap in American incomes
Associated Press
Tuesday November 13, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Decades after the US civil rights movement, the income gap between black and white Americans has grown, says a new study that tracked the incomes of more than 2,000 families for more than 30 years.
Incomes have increased among both black and white families in the past three decades - mainly because more women are in the work force. But the increase was greater among white Americans. Incomes among black men have declined in the past three decades, when adjusted for inflation. They were offset only by gains among black women.
Incomes among white men, meanwhile, were relatively stagnant, while those of white women increased more than five times.
"Overall, incomes are going up. But not all children are benefiting equally from the American dream," said Julia Isaacs, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington thinktank.
Isaacs wrote a series of three reports that looked at the incomes of parents in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and of their grown children 30 years later.
Isaacs compared the incomes of parents who were in their 30s with the incomes of their children, once they reached the same age group.
The reports found that about two-thirds of the children surveyed grew up to have higher family incomes than their parents had 30 years earlier.
Grown black children were just as likely as white counterparts to have higher incomes than their parents. However, incomes among white Americans increased more than those of black Americans. In 2004, a typical black family had an income that was only 58% of a typical white family's. In 1974, median black incomes were 63% of median white incomes. "Too many Americans, whites and even some blacks, think that the playing field has indeed levelled," said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League.
"We are like fingers on the hand," Morial said of black and white Americans. "We are on the same hand, but we are separate fingers."
Morial blamed the disparities on inadequate schools in black neighbourhoods, workplace discrimination and too many black families with only one parent.
"The public policy commitment to this has been sketchy over the last 30 years," Morial said. "There has not been a real focus on this."
Perhaps most disturbing, middle-income black families do not appear to be passing on higher incomes to their children in the same way that white families have, Isaacs said.
She found that only one in three black children from middle-income families grew up to have higher incomes than their parents.
"That means a majority ended up slipping down," Isaacs said.
Among white Americans, about two-thirds of the children from middle-income families grew up to have higher incomes than their parents, she said.
On a positive note, black children from poor families were much more likely to grow up to have higher incomes than their parents, she said. Isaacs compiled the reports for the Economic Mobility Project, a collaboration of senior economists and researchers from four Washington think tanks across the ideological spectrum. The project is funded and managed by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Associated Press
Tuesday November 13, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Decades after the US civil rights movement, the income gap between black and white Americans has grown, says a new study that tracked the incomes of more than 2,000 families for more than 30 years.
Incomes have increased among both black and white families in the past three decades - mainly because more women are in the work force. But the increase was greater among white Americans. Incomes among black men have declined in the past three decades, when adjusted for inflation. They were offset only by gains among black women.
Incomes among white men, meanwhile, were relatively stagnant, while those of white women increased more than five times.
"Overall, incomes are going up. But not all children are benefiting equally from the American dream," said Julia Isaacs, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington thinktank.
Isaacs wrote a series of three reports that looked at the incomes of parents in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and of their grown children 30 years later.
Isaacs compared the incomes of parents who were in their 30s with the incomes of their children, once they reached the same age group.
The reports found that about two-thirds of the children surveyed grew up to have higher family incomes than their parents had 30 years earlier.
Grown black children were just as likely as white counterparts to have higher incomes than their parents. However, incomes among white Americans increased more than those of black Americans. In 2004, a typical black family had an income that was only 58% of a typical white family's. In 1974, median black incomes were 63% of median white incomes. "Too many Americans, whites and even some blacks, think that the playing field has indeed levelled," said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League.
"We are like fingers on the hand," Morial said of black and white Americans. "We are on the same hand, but we are separate fingers."
Morial blamed the disparities on inadequate schools in black neighbourhoods, workplace discrimination and too many black families with only one parent.
"The public policy commitment to this has been sketchy over the last 30 years," Morial said. "There has not been a real focus on this."
Perhaps most disturbing, middle-income black families do not appear to be passing on higher incomes to their children in the same way that white families have, Isaacs said.
She found that only one in three black children from middle-income families grew up to have higher incomes than their parents.
"That means a majority ended up slipping down," Isaacs said.
Among white Americans, about two-thirds of the children from middle-income families grew up to have higher incomes than their parents, she said.
On a positive note, black children from poor families were much more likely to grow up to have higher incomes than their parents, she said. Isaacs compiled the reports for the Economic Mobility Project, a collaboration of senior economists and researchers from four Washington think tanks across the ideological spectrum. The project is funded and managed by the Pew Charitable Trusts.