White College Educated Women Earn Less
In a bit of a surprise, the Census Bureau reported that Black and Asian women with a 4 year bachelor's degrees earn slightly more than similarly educated white women. At no surprise at all, white men with 4 year bachelor's degrees make more than anyone else.
According a the Census Bureau, a white woman with a 4 year bachelor's degree earn approximately $37,800 in 2003. This compared to approximately $43,700 earned by an Asian woman with the same education and approximately $41,100 for a black woman. Hispanic women came in on the bottom of the list with salaries of approximately $37,600 a year for a 4 year bachelor's education.
The Census Bureau data failed to explain why this gap in incomes existed, but economists and sociologists suggest a number of possible factors that may have a contributing effect:
- Minority women, and especially black women, work at more than one job compared to white women
- Minority women may work longer hours than white women
- Minority women take less time off for child birth than white women
- Minority women may get special income incentives to work in certain fields that white women would not
While the Census numbers were a bright spot for professional black women, they do not hide other troubling figures. This includes the fact that nearly 40% of families with a single black woman as the head of household were in poverty. This nearly double the percentage of head of household single white women living in poverty, according to previously released Census data in 2004.
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