The wage gains of african-american women in the 1940s
By: Martha J. Bailey, William J. Collins.
Contributors: Collins, William J., 1867-1938.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10621; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10621.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Wages -- Women -- United States -- History; African American women -- Employment -- History
Description: "The weekly wage gap between black and white female workers narrowed by 15 percentage points during the 1940s.  We employ a semi-parametric technique to decompose changes in the distribution of wages.  We find that changes in worker characteristics (such as education, occupation and industry, and region of residence) can account for a significant portion of wage convergence between black and white women, but that changes in the wage structure, including large black-specific gains within regions, occupations, industries, and educational groups, made the largest contributions.  The single most important contributing factor to the observed convergence was a sharp increase in the relative wages of service workers (where black workers were heavily concentrated) even as black women moved out of domestic service jobs"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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