Black-White Income Gap Grows

Income inequality between black and white families increased over the past three decades, according to a 2007 study, Economic Mobility of Black and White Families, by Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution. The study examined the economic success and income mobility of black and white families from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. 

In 2004 the typical family income of blacks in their 30s was 58 percent of that of white families in the same age bracket—down from 63 percent in 1974. While median family income had increased for whites and blacks since the late 1960s, this was largely attributed to more women joining the workforce. Inflation-adjusted income for black men declined by 12 percent over the past three decades. 

Most striking, the data indicate that middle-income black families did not pass on higher incomes to their children. Only one in three black children from middle-income families achieved a higher income than their parents, while 45 percent fell into the lowest income category. 

The study used census statistics as well as survey data that tracked 2,367 people over more than thirty years. It compared the incomes of parents in their 30s in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the incomes of their children when they reached the same age. The results show that, at each income level, black children were less likely than white children to grow up to have higher incomes than their parents. 

This study is part of a series of reports on poverty for the Economic Mobility Project. It is available online.