Effects of individual, occupational, and industrial characteristics on earnings: Intersections of race and gender

Barbara Kilbourne, Paula England, Kurt Beron

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Critics of the “women’s agenda” in both research and policy have complained of its exclusive focus on the experiences of white women. They maintain that as a result of this focus, we know relatively little about the experiences of black women in the labor market compared to those of white women. This article concentrates on generalizations regarding the effects of experience, education, marital status, occupational characteristics, and industrial sector on earnings. To investigate how these variables interact with gender and race to affect pay, we use fixed effects on panel data (1966–81) from the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS). We use regression decomposition to ascertain (1) what factors explain the gender gap in earnings and whether these factors explain the same portion of this gap among blacks and whites, and (2) what factors explain the race gap in earnings and whether these factors explain the same portion of this gap among women and men.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1149-1176
Number of pages28
JournalSocial Forces
Volume72
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1994

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • History
  • Anthropology
  • Sociology and Political Science

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