Clem Aeppli: Workplace segregation and the structure of racial earnings inequality

Contemporary Studies of Race & Ethnicity presentation by Clem Aeppli, Harvard Sociology.

Abstract: In the last forty years, one’s earnings have come to depend more and more on where one works. How has this reshaped racial and ethnic earnings disparities? I answer this question with American demographic and establishment microdata from the 1970s to the present. I find that black and Hispanic workers have become increasingly siloed into low-revenue, low-paying firms. About half of this trend has been driven by the relocation of blue-collar occupations to low-paying firms, reflecting the rise of outsourcing and related transformations. Today, this pattern of workplace marginalization contributes about 15% and 25%, respectively, to the black-white and Hispanic-white pay gaps.