Economic Gap Widens Between Blacks and Whites

The Economic Policy Institute’s 'The State of Working America 2006/2007' says that in 2000, a Black family's median income was 63.5 percent of the earnings of their White counterparts. Figures show that the number dropped to 62 percent in 2004.

Jared Bernstein, an economist and author of the report, said, "That’s basically $37,000 versus $58,000, so it’s a significant gap."

Bernstein said the late 1990s, with its robust job market, was an economically promising time for African-Americans, but that has since changed.

"Even in the best of times, I think the racial gaps whether we’re looking at income, wages, or wealth are unacceptably high, so I would think that an economic agenda to improve the living standards of Black Americans ought to be at the top of anyone’s list be they policy maker or voter. The Black-White Ratio got up to 64 percent in 2000 and that was the highest on record (since 1947) and that's still a huge gap," he said.

The fact that the minimum wage hasn't been increased since 1997 hasn't helped the plight of Blacks.

"Since African-American workers especially women are disproportionately paid wages at or near the minimum, it (a minimum wage increase) is definitely going to help them both in absolute and relative terms. Meaning in absolute terms, they're going to make more, and they're going to make more relative to folks who earn higher than the minimum wage who don't necessarily get a boost when the minimum goes up," he said.

Although a proposal led by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour by January 2009 failed last month, the debate to increase the national minimum wage of $5.15 an hour is far from over as campaigning lawmakers on Capitol Hill fight to keep their congressional seats in the fall.

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