An alarming new study finds that the wage gap between whites and blacks is larger now than it was nearly four decades ago.
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The report from the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think-tank, claims that black men in the United States make 22 percent less than white men in "comparable jobs" and that black women make 11.7 percent less than white women in equivalent professional roles.
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In 1979, white men made 16.9 percent more than black men and white women made 4.5 percent more than black women.
The institue's study also found that median hourly wages for both black and white men have declined since 1979. When adjusting for inflation, black men saw a 7.2 percent decline in wages, while white men experienced a decline of 3.1 percent.
The good news is that average wages have increased for women, even though a gender-based wage gap persists. However, wages for white women have risen much more than for black women. Median pay for white women grew 30.2 percent over the past 37 years but only 12.8 percent for black women.
A separate study from the nonpartisan Washington-base Pew Research Center also found a persisting race-based wage disparity. But in sharp contrast with the Economic Policy Institute study, Pew reported that the gap has largely remained steady over the past 40 years.
According to Pew, black men today make about 75 percent of what white men make, which is only a marginal improvement over the gap that existed in 1980. Hispanic men appear to have declined in comparison, making only 69 percent of white male wages, down from 71 percent in 1980. Black women and Hispanic women are the worst-paid; they make only 65 percent and 58 percent, respectively, of what white men make.
Asian-Americans are the only ethnic group that has improved significantly during the same time-period. Average wages for Asian men are 117 percent of average white male wages, compared to 97 percent in 1990. Average wages for Asian women are 87 percent of that for white men, which means they do slightly better on average than white women.
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