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Imagine doing $100 worth of work but getting paid only $76 instead.
That’s the situation many Black workers face hour after hour, paycheck after paycheck, as they try to earn a living but often are paid less than their white coworkers. Over a lifetime, that wage gap not only makes it hard for African Americans to cover their daily costs of living, but it also leaves them with far less to invest for retirement.
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For decades, researchers and equal pay advocates have tried unsuccessfully to identify the reasons why Black people are paid only 76 cents for each dollar paid to white workers, a disparity that has lasted for generations.
Differences in career choice is one possible explanation. Black Americans, who are roughly 13 percent of all workers, are overrepresented in comparatively lower-paying fields such as bus drivers (36.6 percent of all drivers), security guards (34.5 percent), and home health aides (32.5 percent), according to the Pew Research Center. At the same time, Black workers are underrepresented in high-paying careers such as information technology, financial services and professional services, the consulting group McKinsey & Company finds.
But even when compared with white workers in the same field with the same level of education, Black workers tend to be paid less than their white colleagues, according to research from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce. The persistence of the racial wage gap suggests it’s unlikely to close anytime soon, but advocates for equal pay have identified some practices that could help you in salary negotiations.
1. Don’t answer salary history questions
Your salary past does not have to be your financial future. This idea is especially true for workers who are Black, for members of other racial minority groups and for women, all of whom sometimes get trapped into lower salaries throughout their careers simply because they started off in lower-paying jobs.
Advocates for equal pay say that employers should avoid asking questions about applicants’ salary history. Research does suggest that removing the question from the hiring process can lead to higher salaries for Black workers.
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