Black workers in Ohio earn 83 cents to every dollar that white workers earn and the gap is widening, a study being released today found.

Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based nonprofit research group, also said black workers in Ohio are more likely to hold poverty-wage jobs and earn less than white workers with similar education levels.

"The basic finding is that blacks still earn less than white workers do in Ohio and, in fact, that gap is growing,'' said Amy Hanauer, executive director of Policy Matters Ohio. "It's a big problem.''

Three-year-old Policy Matters Ohio is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group funded by the George Gund Foundation. Its information is sent to legislators, although Hanauer said the group is not a lobbying organization.

Today's report, "What Color is Your Paycheck? Race and Wages in Ohio,'' used state-specific U.S. Census Bureau data from 2001.

It found that the median wage of black workers in Ohio fell to $10.91 an hour from $12.49 an hour between 1979 and 2001. White workers saw their median wages decrease to $13.17 an hour from $13.84 an hour during that span. Based on these figures, the so-called racial wage gap for blacks has increased to 17.2 percent from 9.8 percent in from 1979 to 2001, the group said.

The study found wages of both blacks and whites increase with more education. It said blacks that don't complete high school earn $8.32 per hour. On average, their wages increase 20 percent if they complete high school, 15 percent with one to three years of education past high school and 39 percent with a college or graduate degree.

Hanauer said reasons for the overall disparity in wages include a loss of manufacturing jobs, a reduction in union jobs, the movement of businesses from inner cities to suburbs, disparities in education among blacks and whites, and discrimination.

State Sen. C.J. Prentiss, D-Cleveland, a board member of Policy Matters Ohio and outgoing president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, said the wage gap mirrors similar disparities among blacks and whites, including those in housing, health care and educational achievement.

Prentiss believes wages won't improve until education does.

"The things that I think our society can quickly do something about is the disparity that exists in education and discrimination,'' Prentiss said. "When you don't underfund schools, you're able to attract high-quality teachers, which is what urban schools need.''

Stephen Mangum, senior associate dean for economic programs and professor of management and human resources at Ohio State University, agrees that decreases in industrial jobs and union jobs are reasons for the wage gap. But he said he doesn't believe education can be blamed, because "disparities in terms of educational attainment are declining, not growing.''

The study also found that:

* The percentage of all workers earning less than the poverty-wage rate ($8.63 an hour in 2001) increased from 1979 to 1989 but has decreased since. In 2001, 21.9 percent of white workers earned poverty wages or less, while 28.8 percent of black workers were at or below that level.

* White women's wages increased 13.3 percent between 1989 and 2001, while black women's earnings decreased.

* The 17 percent racial wage gap falls to 12.5 percent when comparing wages of union workers.

The findings make sense to Walter Cates, president of the Main Street Business Association in Columbus. Cates, a longtime proponent of minority rights, said he also blames a lack of diversity in major corporations for the racial wage gap.

"Like kind helps support like kind,'' Cates said. "If I'm a young, up-and-coming college-educated business executive, unless there's some ruling or wish from the top that diversity will be respected and honored, it doesn't happen much.''

 Printer-friendly version     E-mail this story

Today's Top Business Stories