Trends in racial inequality and exposure to work-related hazards, 1968-1986

Abstract

This article examines trends in the risk of work-related injury and acute illness of blacks relative to whites from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. Large files on individual workers from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey are used to calculate ratios of black to white injury risks, both in absolute terms and after controlling for racial differences in education and potential work experience. A single cohort of approximately 4,000 workers is tracked over the 1971 to 1984 period to obtain insights into the experiences faced by particular black and white workers over the course of their working lives. The findings are quite mixed, with a convergence observed in injury rates for black and white men but a slight divergence observed for black and white women. Since injury rates as a whole were rising over most of this period, these trends in racial risk ratios were accompanied by an absolute increase in risk of injury for both blacks and whites. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for policy initiatives in equal opportunity and occupational health. For male workers, there has been a dramatic narrowing of racial differences in exposure since the 1960s. For female workers, no such narrowing of racial differences has occurred. Black women now face approximately the same risk of occupational injury as white men.