abstract: 'Despite dramatic changes in education and occupational opportunities for

  Blacks in the United States, facilitated by affirmative action policies,

  the White-Black earnings'' gap has not vanished. Although the literature

  on this issue has become substantial no one has yet provided a

  systematic examination of changes in the earnings'' gap that takes into

  consideration the concomitant changes in the occupational structure and

  changes in the racial composition of occupational labor markets as well

  as changes in characteristics of the labor force. In the present

  research, we use 5 waves of IPUMS data and hierarchical linear modeling

  to estimate changes in the effect of race on earnings between 1960 and

  2000. The models focus on the interaction of time and race with earnings

  while controlling for individual-level characteristics (i.e. education)

  at the individual-level and the characteristics of detailed occupational

  labor markets (i.e. occupational socioeconomic status, race and gender

  composition, occupational earnings inequality) at the aggregate level.

  In order to evaluate the effect of change over time, both linear and

  non-linear trends in earning gaps are estimated in the labor market as a

  whole and separately for the public and private sectors. The data reveal

  that net of changes in the occupational distributions and

  market-relevant characteristics of Black and White men, the gaps have

  generally narrowed but at a declining rate. The data also reveal

  considerable differences in racial earnings inequality between the

  public and the private sectors. Whereas the unexplained earnings gap in

  the public sector has virtually vanished by 2000, in the private sector,

  the gap is still significant, although it declined over time. The

  findings are discussed in light of past research in order to re-evaluate

  the contribution of labor market attributes and sector differences to

  change in earnings disparities between Black and White men in the US.

  (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.'
affiliation: 'Semyonov, M (Corresponding Author), Tel Aviv Univ, Dept Sociol, IL-69978
  Tel Aviv, Israel.

  Semyonov, Moshe; Lewin-Epstein, Noah, Tel Aviv Univ, Dept Sociol, IL-69978 Tel Aviv,
  Israel.'
author: Semyonov, Moshe and Lewin-Epstein, Noah
author-email: moshes@post.tau.ac.il
author_list:
- family: Semyonov
  given: Moshe
- family: Lewin-Epstein
  given: Noah
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2008.11.001
eissn: 1096-0317
files: []
issn: 0049-089X
journal: SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
keywords: Racial inequality; Earnings inequality
keywords-plus: 'WHITE WAGE DIFFERENCES; US LABOR-MARKETS; COGNITIVE SKILL; OCCUPATIONAL

  SEGREGATION; RELATIVE EARNINGS; INEQUALITY; EMPLOYMENT; RACE; GENDER;

  WORKERS'
language: English
month: JUN
number: '2'
number-of-cited-references: '47'
orcid-numbers: 'Lewin-Epstein, Noah/0000-0002-7679-7154

  Semyonov, Moshe/0000-0001-8794-6322'
pages: 296-311
papis_id: 9e2a04dd59adfd0df24bb62887237c6f
ref: Semyonov2009decliningracial
times-cited: '22'
title: 'The declining racial earnings'' gap in United States: Multi-level analysis
  of males'' earnings, 1960-2000'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000265423400004
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '30'
volume: '38'
web-of-science-categories: Sociology
year: '2009'