Labor Market Discrimination Against Hispanic and Black Men

Abstract

The article shows that much of the minority-white non-Hispanic wage differential comes from discrimination and from group characteristics that are subject to influence by policy, such as education levels, geographic location, government-sector employment, health, and language skills. Discrimination may come from characteristics that are beyond direct influence, such as age, nativity, and recency of immigration. Discrimination apparently is an important factor in lowering the wages of Puerto Rican, black, Central and South American, and other Spanish men. But clearly, differences in measured characteristics, and not labor market discrimination against the ethnic group, are the overwhelming reason for the shortfall in wages for Mexican American and Cuban men. Moreover, discrimination in the labor market, as it affects the returns to education and other human capital investments, may induce some differences in educational attainment. Thus, discrimination may have indirect effects on wages, as well as the direct effects estimated in the article.