The skanner., June 18, 2014, Page 9, Image 9

National News
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington
Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA)
– As fast food and retail
workers continue to march
for higher wages, a new
study by the Economic Pol-
icy Institute revealed that
Blacks are more likely to
earn poverty wages than
Whites.
EPI released the “Raising
America’s Pay” study in
conjunction with the launch
of a new research initiative
focused on “broad-based
wage growth as the central
economic challenge of our
time – essential to alleviat-
ing inequality, expanding
the middle class, reducing
piece of the pie for workers
to divide, Black and His-
panic workers have been
left behind,” said Wilson.
Wilson said that the new
project will examine occu-
pational segregation in
gender and race, observe the
rise of mass incarceration
and how it affects Black
male workers, and the surge
in undocumented workers.
In a 2011, EPI researchers
reported that Black males
earned less than $15 work-
ing full-time, compared to
their White male peers who
made more than $20, even
with the same levels of edu-
cation.
“One possible explanation
for this wage disparity is
that Black men tend to be
In a 2011, EPI researchers
reported that Black males
earned less than $15 working
full-time, compared to their
White male peers who made
more than $20, even with the
same levels of education
poverty, generating shared
prosperity, and sustaining
economic growth.”
During a panel discussion
about the new project,
Valerie Wilson, director of
EPI’s program on race, eth-
nicity, and the economy,
said that over the last 30
years, wage growth has
been far below productivity
growth, for a lot of workers,
regardless of race, ethnicity
or gender.
Although the number of
Blacks and Whites working
poverty-level wages has
increased since 2000, nearly
36 percent of Black workers
made those wages com-
pared to less than 23 percent
of Whites.
“As we see a shrinking
crowded into lower-paying
occupations – even when
they have similar education-
al attainment as white men,”
stated the report. “The result
is an oversupply of workers
in the crowded occupations,
which has the effect of low-
ering wages further in those
jobs.”
In 2013, the Center for
Economic Policy Research,
reported “that increases in
education and work experi-
ence will increase workers’
productivity and translate
into higher compensation.
But, the share of black
workers in a ‘good job’ –
one that pays at least $19
per hour (in inflation-
adjusted 2011 dollars), has
PHOTO CREDIT FREDDIE ALLEN FOR NNPA
Study Shows Black Workers Stuck in Poverty Wages
Valerie Wilson says Black and Hispanic workers have been left behind.
employer-provided health
insurance, and an employer-
sponsored retirement plan –
has actually declined.”
Wilson said that higher
levels of education have not
translated into wage growth.
“If we look at those work-
ers who are the highest
earners, these are also the
workers that tend to be the
most highly educated,” said
Wilson. “More education
has helped minorities and
women to get higher wages,
but it hasn’t necessarily got-
ten them to equal wages, so
that’s an additional step that
needs to be taken to close
the gap.”
Lawrence Mishel, presi-
dent of EPI, agreed, adding
that college education is
important, but when it
comes to inclusive income
growth over the next 10
years, addressing education
is not very high on that list.
Mishel said that when
economists lean on technol-
ogy and globalization as
prime movers for an
inevitable growth in the
wage gap, they ignore “a
huge realm of policy actions
which have generated wage
suppression and income
inequality.”
Mishel pointed to a Clin-
ton-era tax break for per-
formance
pay
that
contributed to the expansion
of high wages in financial
sector and the erosion of
unionization to explain the
growth in the wage gap.
Mishel said, “No deity
created that. That was creat-
ed by policymakers. It’s not
driven by innovators, it’s
not Steve Jobs.”
See WORKERS on
page 10
June 18, 2014 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 9