Working Paper: NBER ID: w10621
Authors: Martha J. Bailey; William J. Collins
Abstract: The weekly wage gap between black and white female workers narrowed by 15 percentage points during the 1940s. We employ a semi-parametric technique to decompose changes in the distribution of wages. We find that changes in worker characteristics (such as education, occupation and industry, and region of residence) can account for a significant portion of wage convergence between black and white women, but that changes in the wage structure, including large black-specific gains within regions, occupations, industries, and educational groups, made the largest contributions. The single most important contributing factor to the observed convergence was a sharp increase in the relative wages of service workers (where black workers were heavily concentrated) even as black women moved out of domestic service jobs.
Keywords: African American women; wage gains; 1940s; labor market; racial wage gap
JEL Codes: J7; N3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Changes in worker characteristics (J29) | Wage gains (J31) |
| Changes in wage structure (J31) | Wage gains (J31) |
| 1940s integration into formal sector employment (J68) | Wage gains for black women (J31) |
| Sharp increase in relative wages of service workers (J39) | Wage convergence (J31) |
| Large wage gains in domestic service jobs (J39) | Racial wage convergence (J79) |
| Increase in demand for black women's labor (J21) | Wage gains (J31) |