Women, Race, and Ethnicity: Exploring Earnings Differentials in Metropolitan America

Abstract

We draw on leading theories about the structural causes of inequality in the United States to explore inter–metropolitan differences in average earnings for white, black, Hispanic, and Asian women. Our analysis utilizes 2000 census data for a sample of 150 metropolitan areas to investigate the determinants of both women's median earnings and earnings’ inequality by race and ethnicity. We find substantial differences between the earnings of minority and white women across metropolitan areas, although the differences are not in the same direction for all groups. Among other findings, our results indicate: (1) The more retail trade and educational, health, and social service employment, the lower the earnings of most women; (2) the larger the immigrant population in an area, the higher the earnings of white and Asian, but not black or Hispanic women; and (3) residing in the South increases levels of inequality between black and white women. In summary, our results indicate that conventional predictors of aggregate earnings and earnings’ inequality operate differently for white, black, Hispanic, and Asian women at the metropolitan level. Structural characteristics of metropolitan areas all have some influence on women's economic outcomes; but those influences are consistent neither for the earnings of all groups of women nor for earnings’ inequality between groups of women.