The wage gap between black and white Americans is wider now than it was in 1979

A new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) out Tuesday revealed that the wage gap between black and white Americans isn't shrinking — it's widening. "The finding that stands out the most, our major result, is that the racial wage gaps were larger in 2015 than they were in 1979. That's huge because the impression people have, in general, is we know there's still racism in this country, but we think or at least believe that it's getting better," said Valerie Wilson, a report author and director of the EPI's program on race, ethnicity, and the economy.

In the last 36 years, black men and women have continually made lower and lower wages than their white counterparts. In 1979, black men's hourly wages were 22.2 percent lower than white men's; as of 2015, black men's average hourly wages were 31.0 percent lower. Among women, the wage gap increased from 6 percent in 1979 to 19 percent in 2015.

The report mainly attributed this growing gap to a discrepancy in starting salaries for white college graduates and black college graduates. The EPI reported that black male college graduates "started the 1980s with less than 10 percent disadvantage relative to white male college graduates but by 2014 similarly educated new entrants were at a roughly 18 percent disadvantage."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up