Affirmative Action and Racial Wage Gaps in Employment

Introduction to Affirmative Action

Affirmative action is the nation's most ambitious attempt to rectify its long history of racial and sexual discrimination. Born of the civil rights movement three decades ago, it calls for minorities and women to be given special consideration in employment, education, and contracting decisions. The prevailing discriminatory practices during the 1960s, whose targets were working people, women, and people of color, were appalling. Although some progress has been made, defenders of affirmative action claim that the playing field is not yet level. Granting some advantages to minorities and women is therefore more than fair, given decades of discrimination that benefited white men.

In its modern form, affirmative action can call for an admissions officer faced with two similarly qualified applicants to choose the minority over the white candidate, or for a manager to recruit and hire a qualified woman for a job instead of a man. Affirmative action decisions are generally not supposed to be based on quotas, nor are they supposed to give preference to unqualified candidates. In addition, affirmative action should not harm anyone through reverse discrimination. While many minorities and women support affirmative action, a growing number say its benefits are no longer worth its primary side effect — the perception that their success is unearned.

Employment Gaps by Race and Gender

Overall, minorities and women remain concentrated in substantially lower-paying jobs and still face active discrimination in some employment sectors. A study released by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) demonstrated that significant gaps persist between the levels of employment and income of white, non-Hispanic males and white females, minority women, and minority men. Among other findings, the study reported the following:

Mexican Americans represent approximately 18% of the nation's workforce, but less than 7% of managers in 11 of the 12 industry groupings examined. In those same 11 of 12 industry groupings, white women are compensated at salaries less than 70% of their white male counterparts. African Americans comprise less than 4% of managerial positions in the wholesale, construction, manufacturing, business and repair, personal services, and entertainment industries. For every young Mexican American male manager with a college education, there are over 30 white, non-Hispanic males of the same age, with the same education, doing the same job.

Middle- and working-class African Americans experience racism in the form of racial discrimination and segregation in employment, housing, and education. A broad-based employment-opportunity program that would include job creation, job training, and free or subsidized childcare is needed. The continued subordination of Black workers in the workplace is due to persistent discrimination at all stages of the employment process — from recruitment to interview, job offer, and promotion.

Discrimination Against Black and Hispanic Job Seekers

Studies conducted in the 1990s by the Urban Institute in Chicago revealed significant levels of discrimination in the labor market against Black and Hispanic job applicants. The discrimination that previous generations of Black Americans experienced in the labor market also harms modern Black workers' employment prospects today.

An important dimension of the labor market disadvantage suffered by African Americans is their high unemployment rate. Unemployment rates for African Americans are twice as high as those for white workers. The problem is particularly severe for 18- to 19-year-old Black workers, who suffer unemployment rates above 30%. In a study conducted by the Urban Institute, researchers found that young white men were offered jobs 45% more often than young Black men of similar qualifications. This result reveals that some employers were not treating minority male job seekers equally with white males. Additionally, white applicants received 52% more job offers than Hispanic applicants.