Salary Discrimination by Black Males?: Evidence from an Historically Black University

I Introduction It is widely known that white men hold the top rungs of the economic ladder in the U.S. economy-at-large, while women and blacks occupy the lower rungs. An often suggested explanation is that white men discriminate against other race-sex groups. But suppose economic positions are reversed and that it is the black men that hold the top economic power. Do black men then discriminate against others? This note seeks to exploit a rare opportunity to examine the economic behavior of the black males in a relatively large institution that is under their control. SHBU is an 1890 land-grant university begun at the turn of the century in an urban area of the South. In 1979, SHBU, then predominantly black, under court order absorbed a predominantly white university. Combined enrollment at that time was roughly 10,000 students. By 1989, SHBU's schools and colleges offered programs through the doctoral level and served about 7,000 students. Blacks remain as the majority of the student body, and blacks, largely black males, retain control of academic policy. In 1989, SHBU's administration was 64 percent black. Forty-nine percent of the faculty are black, 37 percent are white, and the remaining 14 percent are foreign born. The race-sex make up of the faculty is: 23.9 percent black males, 25.0 percent black females, 26.8 percent white males, 10.5 percent white females, 10.9 percent foreign born males and 2.9 percent foreign born females. This study encompasses the 285 tenure track and tenured faculty members at SHBU in the 1989-90 academic year. Temporary and other non-tenure track faculty are excluded, as are administrators above the level of department head in the 1989-90 academic year even though they may hold faculty rank. Ex-administrators who have returned to the faculty are included. Faculty are grouped into nine schools or disciplines. Arts and Sciences is the largest school with 45.5 percent of the faculty. Salary discrimination is estimated via the simple and Oaxaca approaches, employing initially a single overall salary equation and then separate race-sex equations. Variables reflecting human capital, performance, market demand, and demographic characteristics are included in the regression models. Six race-sex groups, representing each sex for blacks, whites and foreign born, are considered. In the simple approach to estimating salary discrimination, race-sex dummy variables are included along with human capital, market demand and performance variables, in an overall regression equation. Any coefficient on a race-sex variable that is significantly below that of black males is taken as evidence of discrimination by black males. In the Oaxaca approach, separate race-sex salary equations are used and the wage gap decomposed for a race-sex group into two portions. One is considered legitimate since it reflects differences in human capital, demand and performance between the race-sex group and the black male standard.(1) The second is unexplained and is designated discrimination.(2) Separate salary equations are used in the Oaxaca decompositions because the evidence suggests that the race-sex groups at SHBU, other than black females, are rewarded according to wage structures that differ from black men. II Salary Determinants With nine month salary as the dependent variable, Table 1 presents two salary models. The two models differ only in that performance evaluation (PEVAL) and administrative experience (ADMEXP) are included in the first and omitted from the second. Performance evaluation is omitted because it is not statistically significant. Administrative experience is omitted because it may be an important source of discrimination as further discussed below. OKSAL reflects the market value for each faculty member's rank and discipline, and is taken from a 1989-90 survey of salaries in Southeastern land-grant institutions (Office of Institutional Research, Oklahoma State U. …