Evidence on Discrimination in Employment: Codes of Color, Codes of Gender

Abstract

There is substantial racial and gender disparity in the American economy. As we will demonstrate, discriminatory treatment within the labor market is a major cause of this inequality. Yet, there appear to have been particular periods in which racial minorities, and then women, experienced substantial reductions in economic disparity and discrimination. Some questions remain: Why did the movement toward racial equality stagnate after the mid-1970s? What factors are most responsible for the remaining gender inequality? What is the role of the competitive process in elimination or reproduction of discrimination in employment? How successful has the passage of federal antidiscrimination legislation in the 1960s been in producing an equal opportunity environment where job applicants are now evaluated on their qualifications? To give away the answer at the outset, discrimination by race has diminished somewhat, and discrimination by gender has diminished substantially; neither employment discrimination by race or by gender is close to ending. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent related legislation has purged American society of the most overt forms of discrimination, while discriminatory practices have continued in more covert and subtle forms. Furthermore, racial discrimination is masked and rationalized by widely-held presumptions of black inferiority.

Race, color, and income inequality across the Americas

“…Although measures like hourly wage (net of overtime pay) can better address issues around discrimination, per capita household income is a better measure for understanding inequality more broadly as it includes differences resulting from factors like assortative mating (Darity and Mason 1998;Schwartz 2010). Household income is self-reported in the GSS using a list of 25 categories that range from "Under $1,000" to "$150,000 and up."…”

Gender inequality and emigration: Push factor or selection process?

“…The position generally taken by economists to measure discrimination is to isolate the discrimination gap, defined as the average group differences in treatment, from the human capital gap, the average group differences in productivity linked characteristics (see Darity and Mason (1998) for a general presentation of different methodologies). However, this approach cannot take into account the general limitation explained just above for other dimensions of gender equality such as the equal access to the labour market.…”

Discrimination in Hiring Versus Retention and Promotion: An Empirical Analysis of Within-Firm Treatment of Players in the NFL

“…The majority of the literature that tests for discrimination in employment (i.e., hiring, retention, and promotion) considers the earnings and occupational disparities of individuals of different races (for thorough reviews of the literature, see Darity and Mason, 1998;Yinger, 1998;and Ross, 2003). This research often involves regressing earnings level or occupational status on individual characteristics such as education, race, and age.…”