IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jecinq/v10y2012i4p449-470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The reverse wage gap among educated White and Black women

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Fisher
  • Christina Houseworth

Abstract

Using the 2004 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses and the 2004–2005 American Community Surveys, we estimate the Black–White wage gap among females with at least some college education. We find that Black female nurses earn 9% more at the mean and median than White female nurses, controlling for selection into nursing employment. Among K-12 teachers, Black females earn 7% more than White females at the median. There is no Black–White wage gap among all women with a bachelor’s degree. Differences in opportunities for education and marriage between White and Black women may explain why highly educated Black females earn on par with highly educated White females. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Fisher & Christina Houseworth, 2012. "The reverse wage gap among educated White and Black women," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(4), pages 449-470, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jecinq:v:10:y:2012:i:4:p:449-470
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-011-9167-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10888-011-9167-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10888-011-9167-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sergio Urzúa, 2008. "Racial Labor Market Gaps: The Role of Abilities and Schooling Choices," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
    2. David M. Linsenmeier & Harvey S. Rosen & Cecilia Elena Rouse, 2006. "Financial Aid Packages and College Enrollment Decisions: An Econometric Case Study," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(1), pages 126-145, February.
    3. Jones, Cheryl Bland & Gates, Michael, 2004. "Gender-based wage differentials in a predominantly female profession: observations from nursing," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 615-631, December.
    4. Christopher R. Bollinger, 2003. "Measurement Error in Human Capital and the Black-White Wage Gap," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(3), pages 578-585, August.
    5. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    6. Zhenchao Qian, 1997. "Breaking the racial barriers: Variations in interracial marriage between 1980 and 1990," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(2), pages 263-276, May.
    7. June E. O'Neill & Dave M. O'Neill, 2005. "What Do Wage Differentials Tell Us about Labor Market Discrimination?," NBER Working Papers 11240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Gould, Eric D. & Paserman, M. Daniele, 2003. "Waiting for Mr. Right: rising inequality and declining marriage rates," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 257-281, March.
    9. Derek Neal, 2004. "The Measured Black-White Wage Gap among Women Is Too Small," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(S1), pages 1-28, February.
    10. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    11. Ronald Caldwell Jr., 2008. "The Effects of University Affirmative Action Policies on the Human Capital Development of Minority Children: Do Expectations Matter?," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 200812, University of Kansas, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2010.
    12. Carneiro, Pedro & Heckman, James J., 2003. "Human Capital Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 821, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Shannon Seitz, 2009. "Accounting for Racial Differences in Marriage and Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(3), pages 385-437, July.
    14. Dan A. Black & Amelia M. Haviland & Seth G. Sanders & Lowell J. Taylor, 2008. "Gender Wage Disparities among the Highly Educated," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(3), pages 630-659.
    15. Aaron Gullickson, 2006. "Education and black-white interracial marriage," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(4), pages 673-689, November.
    16. Dan Black & Amelia Haviland & Seth Sanders & Lowell Taylor, 2006. "Why Do Minority Men Earn Less? A Study of Wage Differentials among the Highly Educated," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 300-313, May.
    17. Neal, Derek A & Johnson, William R, 1996. "The Role of Premarket Factors in Black-White Wage Differences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(5), pages 869-895, October.
    18. Barry R. Chiswick, 1988. "Differences in Education and Earnings Across Racial and Ethnic Groups: Tastes, Discrimination, and Investments in Child Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(3), pages 571-597.
    19. Sandra E. Black & Amir Sufi, 2002. "Who Goes to College? Differential Enrollment by Race and Family Background," NBER Working Papers 9310, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Stephen V. Cameron & James J. Heckman, 2001. "The Dynamics of Educational Attainment for Black, Hispanic, and White Males," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(3), pages 455-499, June.
    21. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    22. Heinze, Anja & Beninger, Denis & Beblo, Miriam & Laisney, François, 2003. "Measuring Selectivity-Corrected Gender Wage Gaps in the EU," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-74, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peter McHenry & Melissa McInerney, 2012. "Are Wage Premiums for Black Women Illusory? A Critical Examination," Working Papers 120, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    2. Paul F. Byrne, 2014. "Do Workers Profit from the Nonprofit Tax Exemption? The Impact of State Tax Exemption on the Nonprofit Wage Differential of Hospital Workers," Public Finance Review, , vol. 42(2), pages 199-221, March.
    3. Christina Houseworth & Jonathan Fisher, 2024. "Not so Black and White: Interracial marriage and wages," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(2), pages 633-649, April.
    4. Peter McHenry & Melissa McInerney, 2015. "Estimating Hispanic-White Wage Gaps Among Women: The Importance of Controlling for Cost of Living," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 249-273, September.
    5. Peter McHenry & Melissa McInerney, 2014. "The Importance of Cost of Living and Education in Estimates of the Conditional Wage Gap Between Black and White Women," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(3), pages 695-722.
    6. Nicole Coomer, 2015. "An Investigation of the Historical Black Wage Premium in Nursing," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 42(4), pages 323-335, December.
    7. Jonathan D. Fisher & Christina A. Houseworth, 2017. "The Widening Black-White Wage Gap among Women," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 31(3), pages 288-308, September.
    8. Fisher, Jonathan D. & Houseworth, Christina A., 2013. "Occupation inflation in the Current Population Survey," Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, IOS Press, issue 3, pages 243-261.
    9. Burn, Ian & Kettler, Kyle, 2019. "The more you know, the better you’re paid? Evidence from pay secrecy bans for managers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 92-109.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jamie H. Douglas & Michael D. Steinberger, 2015. "The Sexual Orientation Wage Gap for Racial Minorities," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 59-108, January.
    2. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    3. Carneiro, Pedro & Heckman, James J & Masterov, Dimitriy V, 2005. "Labor Market Discrimination and Racial Differences in Premarket Factors," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(1), pages 1-39, April.
    4. Romain Aeberhardt & Élise Coudin & Roland Rathelot, 2017. "The heterogeneity of ethnic employment gaps," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(1), pages 307-337, January.
    5. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    6. David McClough & Mary Ellen Benedict, 2017. "Not All Education Is Created Equal: How Choice of Academic Major Affects the Racial Salary Gap," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 62(2), pages 184-205, October.
    7. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn & Nikolai Boboshko & Matthew Comey, 2024. "The Impact of Selection into the Labor Force on the Gender Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(4), pages 1093-1133.
    8. Petreski, Marjan. & Mojsoska-Blazevski, Nikica., 2015. "The gender and motherhood wage gap in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia : an econometric analysis," ILO Working Papers 994895293402676, International Labour Organization.
    9. David Bravo Urrutia & Sergio Urzúa & Claudia Sanhueza, 2007. "Is There Labor Market Discrimination Among Professionals In Chile? Lawyers, Doctors And Business-People," Working Papers wp264, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    10. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2008. "Unequal Pay or Unequal Employment? A Cross-Country Analysis of Gender Gaps," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(4), pages 621-654, October.
    11. Nicodemo, Catia, 2009. "Gender Pay Gap and Quantile Regression in European Families," IZA Discussion Papers 3978, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Romain Aeberhardt & Julien Pouget, 2007. "National Origin Wage Differentials in France. Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data"," Working Papers 2007-15, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    13. Gabin Langevin & David Masclet & Fabien Moizeau & Emmanuel Peterle, 2017. "Ethnic gaps in educational attainment and labor-market outcomes: evidence from France," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 84-111, January.
    14. Chiara Mussida, 2015. "L?impatto dell?istruzione sui salari per genere in Italia / Appendice Statistica," ECONOMIA E SOCIET? REGIONALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(2), pages 94-113.
    15. Günalp, Burak & Cilasun, Seyit Mümin & Acar, Elif Öznur, 2013. "Male-Female Labor Market Participation and the Extent of Gender-Based Wage Discrimination in Turkey," MPRA Paper 51503, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Marjan Petreski & Nikica Blazevski & Blagica Petreski, 2014. "Gender Wage Gap when Women are Highly Inactive: Evidence from Repeated Imputations with Macedonian Data," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 393-411, December.
    17. Daniela Piazzalunga, 2018. "The Gender Wage Gap Among College Graduates in Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 4(1), pages 33-90, March.
    18. Christopher Bollinger & James P. Ziliak & Kenneth R. Troske, 2011. "Down from the Mountain: Skill Upgrading and Wages in Appalachia," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(4), pages 819-857.
    19. Christina Boll & Julian Sebastian Leppin, 2016. "Differential Overeducation in East and West Germany: Extending Frank's Theory on Economic Returns Changes the Picture of Disadvantaged Women," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 30(4), pages 455-504, December.
    20. Victor Chernozhukov & Ivan Fernandez-Val & Siyi Luo, 2023. "Distribution regression with sample selection and UK wage decomposition," CeMMAP working papers 09/23, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Human capital; Differential demand and supply for schooling; Wage gaps;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jecinq:v:10:y:2012:i:4:p:449-470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.