CA inequality much worse for Latinos than blacks
by Chris Reed | May 11, 2015 8:36 am
A new study[1] of the state workforce by UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education shows income inequality rose steadily under both Democratic and GOP governors from 1979 to 2014.
That’s not a surprise, given that income inequality’s rise is a worldwide phenomenon. But one pattern jumps out from the various charts in the study: In California, income inequality is significantly more concentrated among Latinos than blacks, despite a perception of both groups facing similar economic straits.
Latinos make up 39 percent of the state workforce, but account for 56 percent of workers in low-wage jobs, defined as those paying $13.63 an hour or less. African Americans make up 5 percent of the workforce, but only 6 percent of those in low-wage jobs.
This illustrates a point made often by Charles O. Ellison, an African American political strategist who writes for The Root and other publications: Contrary to media imagery, blacks are more likely to be middle-class[2] or wealthy than impoverished. The percentage of African Americans in poverty has fallen by more than half since 1960, although the net worth of middle-class blacks is far lower on average than middle-class whites.
In California, that pattern holds for African Americans but not for the Latino population, in which poverty is as common as middle-class status.
The UC Berkeley study dovetails with a point made by Gov. Jerry Brown about the urgency of improving educational outcomes for Latino students. It shows only 20 percent of people with college or advanced degrees have low-wage jobs.
According to the Public Policy Institute of California research[3], only about 14 percent — one in seven — of Latino adults have such degrees. That’s less than half the California average of 33 percent.
But while such degrees remain a path to the middle class, that trajectory is less certain than it used to be. According to UC Berkeley, in 1979, only 8 percent of low-wage jobs were held by people with college or advanced degrees. Last year, that figure was 13 percent[4].
That, too, reflects a national trend[5].
- study: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/lowwageca/
- middle-class: http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/are-we-talking-enough-about-the-black-middle-class
- research: http://www.ppic.org/main/keystat.asp?i=1264#2
- 13 percent: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/lowwageca/#ChangesinAgeandEducationOverTime
- national trend: http://www.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/education/education-no-guarantee-for-success-20120914
Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2015/05/11/ca-inequality-much-worse-latinos-blacks/