Dr. Roderick Harrison, director of Databank at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, says factors contributing to racial pay disparities include regional differences in pay, types of degrees earned as well as discrimination.
“The key thing is this, if you’re a Black male or a Black female, getting additional education will considerably improve your life. Education is worth it since you open yourself up to higher paying jobs and higher lifetime earnings,” Harrison says. “If you’re comparing yourself to your White classmates, you do have difficulty converting the same educational level into comparable earnings. That is an area where we have not seen changes.”
The data came from an annual survey of 100,000 households nationwide conducted each spring on social and economic issues.
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