Workers in rural areas earn lower wages than nonrural workers and previous evidence has attributed these differences to lower returns to worker characteristics. This paper builds on that data by examining racial and gender differences within the broader group of rural workers. While there is extensive evidence on both the structure of wages and the source of racial wage differentials between Whites and Blacks, there is no such evidence for those in either group living in rural areas. Nor is there much evidence in this literature for American Indians. This paper's contribution to the literature is two-fold. First, it broadens the existing evidence regarding rural workers by focusing on racial and gender differences. Second, it provides new evidence of the structure of wages faced by American Indians, a group typically ignored in empirical research due to data problems. The results reveal that only 14 percent of the 24 percent total wage difference between Whites and American Indians for males are unexplained by observable personal and job characteristics, but 66 percent of the 11 percent wage difference remains unexplained for females. Comparing Whites and Blacks, 44 percent of the 31 percent wage difference is unexplained for males, while 97 percent of the 15 percent wage difference is unexplained for females. With the rural focus, Whites are more similar to American Indians, both experiencing very small wage returns to education. However, in both samples, Blacks suffer disproportionately severe penalties for low educational attainment. For all three races, females enjoy much higher returns to education than males.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in its series Staff Working Papers with number
94-27.
Length: Date of creation: Jun 1994 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:upj:weupjo:94-27
Contact details of provider: Postal: 300 S. Westnedge Ave. Kalamazoo, MI 49007 USA Phone: 1-616-343-5541 Fax: 1-616-343-7310 Web page: http://www.upjohninstitute.org
Find related papers by JEL classification: J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)