Privilege and Hindrance on the U.S. Earnings Distribution by Gender and Race/Ethnicity: The Role of Occupations in an Intersectional Framework with 12 Groups

If gender and race/ethnicity did not privilege some groups and harm others in the labor market, one would expect that groups that do not differ in terms of human capital, geographic location, and other basic characteristics would earn wages around average. However, our counterfactual analysis shows substantial disparities among our 12 gender–race/ethnicity groups. All female groups, except Asians, have conditional wages well below average, especially, Native American, Black, and Hispanic women. Moreover, all female groups have conditional wages below those of any male group (except Asian women, who rank above Black men). Male advantage seems to be concentrated in two races, Asians and Whites; the other male groups have conditional wages either below average (Black men) or around average (Hispanic, Native American, and “other race” men). Our intersectional framework allows delving deeper into the gender and race penalties. White women’s gender penalty is much larger than the racial penalty of any male (or female) group. Similarly, Asian women’ gender penalty is larger than the racial penalty of any male group except for Blacks. Distinguishing among more than 400 occupational categories, we find that underpayment within occupations harms especially Native American women whereas occupational sorting strongly impacts Black women (even after including controls). Black men’s occupational sorting also harms them after controlling for characteristics, a finding that we do not see in any other male group.