Race discrimination refers to viewing some people as being superior compared to others, mainly due to their skin color. For example, those people who are light-skinned are viewed as being superior to people who have dark skin color. As a result, the individuals with light skin are given the best opportunities and treated better than their dark-skinned counterparts. They get the best jobs; they are highly paid and they garner more respect as compared to their counterparts who have dark skin. Ethnic discrimination, on the other hand, refers to as treating people differently due to their country of origin or due to their background. For instance, the people who are born and raised in a country have a better chance of obtaining a job in their home country as compared to those born from other countries and have migrated to the said country (Hersch, 364). For example, individuals who are born and raised in the United States, despite their skin color are given a higher consideration when it comes to attaining employment as compared to those of the same race who migrate to America in search of either employment or to be residents.
Governments’ advice against race and ethnicity discrimination, especially in the labor. They advocate for people not to be discriminated as a result of their race or ethnic background. However, despite the advice from government and other organizations, race and ethnic discrimination is still very prevalent especially in the labor market. Employers discriminate against the people they employ as a result of their ethnic background or their race. They also offer differ jobs, job positions, and different wages to people of different race and ethnic background. A good example is the wage difference between white men and black men. Studies show that white men earn higher wages as compared to black males. A study showed that white men earn 30% more in wages as compared to their counterparts who were black. It also showed that white females earn 10.7% more wage income as compared to female from other races (Eli, 9).
Education is an important factor which is used to determine the wage a person gets from the employer. Employers use a person’s level of education to determine where they are to be paid high wages or low wages. In the United States labor market, however, discrimination against race and ethnicity exist. As a result, employers do not just use education to determine the wage rate for individuals. Rather, they also use race and ethnicity as a determinant of the kind of wage people receive. A study conducted in the Britain concludes labor market concluded that white people earn about ten percent more regarding wage as compared to people of other races (Eli, 5). The difference in wage was despite the fact that people of the other races had higher educational qualifications as compared to the white people. The research showed that white individuals had 1.5 years of less education compared to other people from other races.
Similar studies show that despite the difference in education, white people are paid more as compared to people with dark skin. However, being born and raised in the country offers a unique opportunity to obtain higher wages. According to a study by Heather Antecol and Kelly Bedard, Mexicans who were born and raised in the United States received more wages as compared to those who migrated to the United States. The wage difference was despite the fact that those born and raised in America had less education compared to immigrant (Antecol and Bedard, 15).
Research also indicates that men and women of color, that is, Latinos and African-Americans face discrimination in the labor market due to their race or ethnicity. Researchers found that by the mere fact that one was darker skinned, their earnings reduced by as well as their educational attainment (Avalos, 499). Research conducted comparing wages between United States born Cuban women and foreign-born Mexican women also showed that there is a difference between wages of people born in a country and those who move in search of jobs kin another country (Hersch, 364). In this study, Cuban women born in the United States earned $6.1 per hour while Mexican women born foreign earned $4.5 (Avalos, 502).
Race and ethnicity discrimination in the United States labor market also affect wage levels in that it affects the occupation that people engage. People from different races obtain employment opportunities in different industries and thus, their wages will be different. Some people are employed in low-paid jobs while others are employed in high-paid jobs. According to research in the Britain labor market, white people get higher paid jobs as compared to people of color (Brynin and Güveli, 575). For example, twenty percent of Britain-born whites are in the health sector and the rest of the eighty percent is filled with people from other races. People of other races are also so many in occupations such as hotel and restaurant, and distribution. They offer lower pay, thus explaining the effect of discrimination on the wage in the labor market. Whites, on the other hand, are more in businesses such as industrialization, technology, which offer higher wages (Brynin and Güveli, 575).
Race and ethnicity discrimination also cause differences in occupational preference among different people, thus affecting the wage in the labor market. The minority group engages in temporary, insecure or casual job opportunities. They are characterized by low pay explaining the wage differences. Minorities also tend to embrace self-selection or self-discrimination and as a result, concentrate more on the occupations that pay lower wages other than those that pay higher wages. For instance, they are more interested in becoming a classroom assistant, which pay less money other than focusing on becoming a full-fledged teacher (Brynin and Güveli, 576). The self-discrimination may result from history whereby they believe that despite their hard work and education, they cannot obtain good jobs as compared to the white people.
Race and ethnicity discrimination within and across occupations is also very common. Some employers fail to provide entry level jobs to people of a certain race due to being biased or discrimination. It explains why people from a particular race end up in certain jobs. For instance, whites end up in jobs in industries dealing with technology and other profitable enterprises, unlike the black people who end up in less profitable enterprises. As a result, the wage offered for the two different industries will be different. When circumstances allow, they may employ people from another race. However, they prevent them from getting a promotion despite them deserving it. People from other races thus remain at the lower level of management never advancing to higher managerial level and this affects the wage level in the labor market (Brynin and Güveli, 576).
Experience is another factor that influences the amount of wage that individuals receive. In the labor market. Employers are very concerned about how much experience employees have when considering who to higher for a particular job. However, experience from whites and people of other races differ. Research indicates that an average thirty year old high school graduate who is black, has 9.6 years of experience as compared to a white graduate from high school of the same age who has 11.4 years of experience. Their Mexican counterpart is said to have 10.5 years of experience and is thus closely identified with the whites as compared to the blacks (Antecol and Bedard, 2).
The main reason for the differences in experience was the fact that white people are more likely to get job opportunities as compared to the Mexicans and the black people (Antecol and Bedard, 1). On the other hand, Mexicans are more likely to be employed by companies as compared to black people. Since experience is crucial to employment and it determines the wage that people receive, the whites will obtain a higher wage as compared to Mexicans and blacks even when they have the same level of employment. Similarly, Mexicans will be paid a higher wage as compared to the black people, since they have more experience.
Works cited
Antecol, Heather and Kelly Bedard. "The Racial Wage Gap: The Importance of Labor Force Attachment Differences Across Black, Mexican, and White Men." n.d.
Avalos, Manuel. "Gender Inequality: Sorting Out The Effects Of Race/ Ethnicitty And Gender In The Anglomale-Laino Femeles Earnigns Gap." Sociological Perspectives. Vol 39, No. 4 (1996): 497-515.
Brynin, Malcolm and Ayse Güveli. "Understanding the ethnic pay gap in Britain." Labour market diversity and differences (2012): 574 –587.
Eli, Shari J. What Determines Our Wage: The Econometric Analysis of Male-Female Wage Gap. Economics Research. Berkeley: University of California, Department of Economics, 2010.
Hersch, Joni. "Skin Color Discrimination & Immigrant Pay." Emory Law Journal [Vol. 58] (2008): 357-378. print.
