How far has the United States come in the years since? Below, four numbers that tell the story of racial progress and persisting inequality in America: whole story. The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, says that unionized black women would suffer the most from an anti-union decision in Janus. Black women make up a disproportionate share of public employees 18 percent, or roughly 1. Despite their ugly histories of racist exclusion, unions have emerged as a key vehicle for collapsing the vast inequality between black women and the rest of the workforce.
And while black women earn 65 cents for every dollar earned by white men, that wage gap is 20 percent smaller for unionized black women.
More than ever, two workforce groups are emerging: those who are working, staying in the workforce and putting in longer hours; and those who are falling out of, or never got into, the workforce, according to a new Economic Policy Institute EPI report. Because opportunities are not universally available, EPI says. Black unemployment is near an all-time low, but that only tells part of the story.
One in every five working-age black men in the United States did not work at all in , nor earn any income. EPI is a left-leaning research group. In these areas, their situation has either failed to improve relative to whites or has worsened. In the black unemployment rate was 7. In , the black homeownership rate was just over 40 percent, virtually unchanged since , and trailing a full 30 points behind the white homeownership rate, which saw modest gains over the same period.
And the share of African Americans in prison or jail almost tripled between and and is currently more than six times the white incarceration rate. In the areas of homeownership, unemployment, and incarceration, things have either remained the same for African Americans or gotten worse.
