people most impacted by the crumbling system we discuss critical questions about how the current system works its intersections with social justice and highlights the efforts that are being made to improve the lives of everyone is affected by we actually you the viewers to spread the word about both sides of the bars and share your comments with us on twitter at the fortunes of today show isn't titled the color of money in an article published by the new york times it was reported th black families in america earn just fifty seven dollars and thirty cents for every one hundred dollars in income why family and for every one hundred dollars held in white family wealth families hole just five dollars  racial wealth gap exists even among black people who are highly educated and come from two parent homes black families with graduate or professional degrees have two hundred thousand dollars less in wealth than similarly educated whites so w accounts for these racial disparities in wealth how do we mean fully addressed in raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars in new york a step in the right direction i'm honored to have the wonderful gets with me today stac stacy is the managing director at workforce professional training institute stacy has spent the past decade critically assessing and that's practices in workforce development translating those findings into practical guidance for practitioners and their funders stacy holds a master's degree in public administration from new york university's robert f wagner school of public service and a master's degree in sociology from penn state university thank you for joining us today stacey how are you feeling today i'm well thank you andria happy to be here i mean you know we're all kind of like jumped right into it you know we know that the racial gap exists like even among black people who are highly educated and coming from two parent home for black families and it's different obviously for white families you know so what i want to do is just right and it stays right so like many people believe the greater education attainment on the part of black and hispanic communities with cold like what are your thoughts on this approach to addressing this issue so to step back and set some of the context you have been framing looking at the issue of wealth and in some of the studies that you've cited much other research you can look back and you can and documented how wealth is typically passed down through generations and so when you think about  look at some of the wealth gap the disparities between white families and black families or spandex families and you reflect on the yes the changes over the last few decades in terms of civil rights and hopefully equal the playing field at least on the legal ground you have to remember that the time that it takes to really catch up and to start to accumulate wealth to begin to pass that wealth across generations you know are insufficient in terms of really being able to make up for what in some cases has been centuries of wealth accumulation especially among white families so when you have entire classes of individuals that were structurally and systematically barred for example from educational opportunities sometimes employment opportunities from from banking and housing and other things that have been really drivers of  wealth at this time as well as across generations you can see how starting starting from zero even if you're if you're using you know your starting point as the mid one nine hundred sixty s it still is it takes time to build up to you know you think about your own goals in terms of starting from zero versus having i guess the power of accumulation over to time or compound interest for example so i think just i guess stepping back and recognizing as much as we have made strides legally in this country we know that implementation is an event and we know that access to education and employment and good education and good employment is is not going to be equal to obviously higher education or education generally when we know that that's like a myth oftentimes right that people you know because they may have this creationism in necessarily going to have equity and wealth per se and so you know the other thing is i just want to talk about you know we talk about what are your thoughts on the approach to addressing this issue what do you think are some of the things that  can be done to come to address equity around like that when the income disparity sure well to focus back on education and thinking about education again quite a bit of research has been conducted and i want to point to a couple of local programs that are are thinking about so even if if lackland and latino individuals are persisting you know getting through high school and getting into higher education and same similar rates as white individuals their persistence rates in college are lower and so keeping people in school and that is you know can stem from a number  of factors sometimes sometimes yes it is preparedness but also financial and other barriers trying to to balance work and education and so a program here in new york city out of the city university of new york the  program that really focuses on getting individuals into associate's degree programs and helping them for persisting graduate within if not two years within you know two or three years community college graduation rates are pretty much abysmal across the board or have been historically and so this is a program that started off as a pilot program a few years ago with a handful or a relative handful of students and now has expanded to i want to say upwards of about twenty thousand students across cuny schools in rolled in a set up with one college bronx community college adopting a sap as a model for everybody who comes into the  school this is something that has happened with support from the city from city council and flexible dollars that come into to provide those wraparound and really those supportive services but understanding that that is one way back can help  targeted intervention into her into interventions in terms of getting people through education and so getting those degrees but as we've talked about or as you alluded to before the education in itself that degree of social next works relative to this disparity and like well sure how does that jibe with that it's so we were we were talking a little bit about just the inner intergenerational transfer of  wealth and yes that has to do with with assets such as property you know cash other other kind of tangible things but what i don't think necessarily gets as much attention or isn't as as teased out in the research is also those inner generational trends you know transference of social networks and social capital and so that is pretty critical when you're looking at education so access to education where you go to school but also on the other and how do you you know when when you're in the labor market how are you able to navigate through the labor market through those social networks it's something i think i personally have  taken a step back and you look at you think about your career trajectory and how you've gotten jobs and i think honestly i can say oftentimes that has been maybe not that i know the person who was hiring me but someone was able to vouch for me so it's that sociological concept the strength of weak ties knowing that having those that you know those networks that yes or are deep and kind of thick  and direct connect but also are branching out to lots of other different types of people that can be tapped into that is something that i think you know is not necessarily given you know kind of all of the attention that it should but is critical and when we think about you know going back to the topic thinking of the wealth gap and thinking about the even an even a sieve opportunity when you are for example when you are in a highly segregated school district or neighborhood the types of networks that you are exposed to or involved in are also likely to be pretty segregated and more limited and so when you know your you're a young adult and you're looking for employment not being able to tap into necessarily some of those networks that could lead you to take advantage of that education that you got that to that degree you got and really you know put you kind of in th the contender first for certain jobs so it's you know i think we could we could certainly probably reflect on our own experiences and also the the value for example in the context of a workforce development program  exposing those individuals who are going through it to two different work experiences to different work environments to to a variety of people so how do you start to build those those social capital networks it's less well than the white family who's had not even obtained a high school diploma and it takes a post graduate education for a black family to have comparable levels of wealth to a white house or with some college education translate some of that wealth i mean i think looking into education and looking into employment and again setting the context for where we are and you know again knowing that that education should matter that should be the  great equalizer but we see that it isn't again employment to step back and set a little bit of the context we currently are at a point historically where the unemployment rate is is lower than it's been in decades so nationally is hovering around four percent similar in new york city in new york state what the how that translates into the labor market so we also see in new york city and again in new york state since the great recession you know month after month at the new jobs to the labor market so jobs are being created people are attaching to employment the unemployment rate tells you one pieces of the story so when we say four percent unemployment rate that four percent in compass is people who are trying to work they're actively looking for work but haven't managed to attach to the labor market it it covers up individuals for example who would like to be working but have are discouraged or have dropped out of even looking for a family but also men and formerly incarcerated i think a number you know research has documented a number of formerly incarcerated fall  in that in that category but i bring that up i think it's important to say you know with the economic context right now and low unemployment and record number of jobs this is this is a real opportunity to you know to to bring more people in especially those who might have been discouraged into the labor market including the formerly incarcerated i think of a story i saw a couple of years ago in wisconsin that i think even a couple of years ago there the state unemployment rate was i think just about three percent and they were becoming desperate saying we're trying to find workers and so what did they do they said well let's let's turn to the jail and the prison systems we might have people here that are that would be interested in and amenable to training opportunities so that when they're released they can walk right into a job  that's one you know i think you could say that they did it out of desperation but but being in that that state saying we have a strong economy relatively how do how do those of us who are thinking about these issues say yes absolutely this is your chance to look at a talent pool that maybe gets overlooked or just because of history or or prejudices or just you know other otherwise there are sometimes an reasonable i guess  restraints put on who can and who cannot be employed in certain fields and so employers are are having to step back and say maybe we need to reassess our policies and should we have a blanket for example policy against anyone with a criminal background or can we can we weigh those you know those decisions based on other pieces of information and that's important too and there are some employees however that they may need to be forced discrimination or discriminatory practices from corporations enormous businesses like target it's important that we hold them accountable too like what are your thoughts on that that is i'm glad you brought that that example to my attention and yes you're right sometimes it does require the force of law are bringing a lawsuit forward in order to get employers to take a step back i guess likely you know target has has proven to be an employer that is i think outed on the cutting edge when you look at for example their policies around raising the minimum wage organization wide or company wide across the country regardless of of local laws or you know some of their policies around populations and so where those lessons can be called from what when they were looking at the data for example and were those systematic where those systematic forms of discrimination were they more localized to certain stores i think being able to share that type of information with other corporations large and small businesses large and small to say this is a chance to really step back and understand that you know the decisions that we may you know sometimes you know do require really reassessing is this issues once again i'll set some context this is an area that i've been been looking at for close to the past two years in terms of the minimum wage increase in new york city in new york state new york state actually has one of the most complex sets of minimum wage increase schedules across the country but just to hit the high level number so in new york city fifteen dollars per hour is the minimum wage for businesses that employ eleven or more employees it's currently thirteen dollars and fifty cents per hour for those smaller businesses in new york city in westchester county and in long island it is twelve dollars an hour and across the state the rest of the state it's eleven dollars and ten cents per hour there is a differential in the rest of the state where fast food workers are being paid twelve seventy five per hour right now so you can see it's kind of across the board and that wage so where the wage is not fifteen dollars per hour right now over time it will eventually hit fifteen with all employers in new york city hitting fifteen dollars an hour at the end of this year so in in preparing for that change in that as i mentioned change that change came from the state not from the city a couple of of research outfits conducted some research in two thousand and fifteen or two thousand sixteen as the increase was being contemplated and actually came up with some some estimates of who would be impacted to what degree they would be impacted and so one research study out of the economic policy institute for example made that a total of by two thousand and twenty one when the minimum wage is projected to reach fifteen dollars an hour across the state a total of three point two million new yorkers will be impacted directly by that wage increase sizeable about one point four million of those individuals are in new york city which is roughly a quarter of our our workforce when you look at the demographic breakdown  it's estimated that i think around a third of black new yorkers will be impacted by that by that increase or sorry i should say a third of the people impacted are african american but when you look if you look just within the population of african americans in the labor market about forty percent will be impacted and just over half of latino's will be impacted so this is you know has real real potential to impact the wages of individuals of families again with some of this research the estimate was that so taking when the wage in two thousand and fifteen was nine dollars an hour and moving up to fifteen dollars an hour that the average person who started in that nine dollars an hour job if they were if they stayed in that same job again lots of assumptions that they would be earning close to five thousand dollars more per year by the time the wage hit fifteen so great possibility in terms of really changing the economic picture however remember fifteen dollars an hour in a city like new york city still doesn't mean it doesn't get you very sorry so when when i say that that forty percent of new yorkers of african american new yorkers are impacted by that then that gives you a sense of of how many how many people are working at jobs that pay at or near the minimum wage and so  where do you where do we start to say ok that's great that's a policy that really impacts people could more money in their pockets but how do you look at making sure that people are moving up from those jobs or have access to jobs that pay more than the minimum to begin with and have the potential for for wage growth and for benefits and everything else that comes with what we would define as a good job sure and you know what is one suggestion you like to make for our country gap and gaps in wealth there they're huge issues and they're systemic as i mentioned i think there is a growing set of cities and others that are really starting to take head on the issue of equity and build it into how the city approaches work force or education or other issues one that comes to mind would be minneapolis st paul or the twin cities and just to get reflecting on some work i did about seven years ago both folks officials at the city and in the philanthropic community were starting to ask that question they were looking at the data and they said in the twin cities we have  have you know comparatively high rates of educational attainment and they also had i think some of the most significant gaps in terms of employment racially and so they said how do we deal with this so it took them a couple of years but really had to say yes we we want to commit to making equity a piece of what we do and recognizing that committing to equity means that you might have to in order to achieve equal outcomes you might need to provide extra services or give extra attention to certain population ns but it's i think it's you know making that commitment and saying this is something that we need to do in order to move  forward as a city as a society and also this can help us use limited resources in the best way so i think it's not to say that we're not doing that in new york city but i would say if we could push to look at to be more like the twin cities or work is going on in chicago and philadelphia other places where they're starting to take it on the issue of racial equity and have i think data informed and sometimes you know not everybody's in the weeds thinking about these i'm in a in a position where i do look at those issues day in and day out i can look at the way that that data can inform what we do or help us you know think about these issues and really use those as solutions and use data to come up with solutions but but you know honestly having having conversations like this and thinking about the role of education  and employment and how that plays into you know what we still see as the american dream in terms of building wealth and building a stable foundation for you and your family and just keep having these conversations thank you