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Wage Compression and Wage Inequality Between Black and White Males in the United States, 1940–1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Thomas N. Maloney
Thomas N. Maloney
Affiliation:
Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program on Race, Urban Poverty, and Social Policy at the Center for the Study of Urban Inequality, University of Chicago, 1313 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
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Abstract

The gap between the mean wages of black men and white men in the United States narrowed substantially between 1940 and 1950. There was, however, almost no change in this wage gap between 1950 and 1960. Some of this discontinuity in the path of black progress can be explained by general changes in the wage structure—wage compression in the 1940s and slight expansion in the 1950s. However, most of the gains of the 1940s were driven by race-specific factors, including increasing relative wages controlling for worker characteristics. These race-specific gains ceased in the 1950s.

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Type
Articles
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 358 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1994

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