Deck 7: Income and Labor Market Inequality

Question 1

As of 2013, the United States had more income inequality than Mexico.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Men earn more than women and that White workers earn more than non-White workers, even accounting for differences in education, skills, years on the job, and productivity.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Compared with similar nations, the United States ranks the best in terms of child poverty rates and has the smallest difference in ratio between the richest 10 percent and poorest 10 percent.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Racism and sexism operate in the same ways for different ethnic and racial groups.

Question 5

One in three Black men born in the twenty-first century can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime.

Question 6

In the United States, the difference in earnings between the richest and poorest people has been slowly decreasing over the past few decades.

Question 7

White women are more likely to attain highly paid positions and thus gain more than their Black counterparts.

Question 8

White men have the highest average earnings in the United States.

Question 9

Asian American men do not face discrimination in the labor market.

Question 10

Incarcerated people are not included in the unemployment rate.

Question 11

Incarcerated people who work in prison are guaranteed the federal minimum wage.

Question 12

Racial disparities in employment outcomes are entirely associated with disparities in levels of human capital.

Question 13

Given the unequal conditions of the formal labor market, one way racial and ethnic minorities cope is by turning to self-employment.

Question 14

The median income of White workers in the United States has been higher than that of Black workers for as long as we have kept track of income data.

Question 15

Young Black women who are college graduates have higher rates of labor force participation than other racial/ethnic counterparts and therefore have the highest lifetime earnings.

Question 16

Even when accounting for accounting for differences in education, skills, years on the job, and productivity , studies of labor market discrimination and income inequality clearly show that:

A) Black women earn more than White women, but all Whites earn more than Latinxs
B) women earn more than men, and Asian women earn more than any other group
C) men earn more than women, and White workers earn more than non-White workers
D) Latino men earn more than Asian men, with White men earning the least

Question 17

As of 2019, the United States has a Gini coefficient of 0.48. How does the United States compare to other advanced economies in terms of income inequality?

A) The U.S. is one of the most unequal
B) The U.S. is slightly more equal
C) The U.S. is one of the most equal
D) The U.S. rates about the same as the others

Question 18

The ________ refers to overall income regardless of hours worked, whereas the ________ refers only to the difference in the amount earned per hour worked.

A) gross income gap; pay gap
B) earnings gap; wage gap
C) pay gap; gross income gap
D) wage gap; earnings gap

Question 19

The median income of White workers in the United States is higher than that of Black workers. This difference in earnings by group is an example of the:

A) gross income gap
B) earnings gap
C) pay gap
D) wage gap

Question 20

When taking gender into account, data about racial inequality in the labor market shows that the human capital advantage of work experience is:

A) less for Black women than for White and Hispanic women
B) more for Hispanic women than White or Black women
C) more for Black and Hispanic women than for White women
D) less for Hispanic women than for White or Black women

Question 21

Asian American men have the highest average earnings in the United States. What evidence suggests that Asians still might experience discrimination in the labor force?

A) Their average earnings should actually be even higher because Asians have higher average educational attainment than Whites.
B) Even though Asians have higher average educational attainment, they are rejected from selective colleges at a higher rate than Whites.
C) Asians rarely benefit from affirmative action practices aimed at diversifying the workplace.
D) All of the above.

Question 22

Although measures of wage differentials and the earnings gap provide an understanding of inequality in the labor market, this understanding is limited because these measures do not take into account:

A) job skills and training
B) race and gender
C) education and years of experience
D) joblessness and underemployment

Question 23

The __________ estimates the probability that a person of working age is employed, factoring in those who are not looking for work.

A) Gini coefficient
B) unemployment rate
C) employment-population ratio
D) joblessness rate

Question 24

The underemployment category includes:

A) jobless workers actively seeking work
B) people who are working part-time yet are available to work full-time
C) those who have looked for work in the past year yet are not actively seeking employment
D) All of the above

Question 25

Western and Pettit conducted a study which looked at the percentages of Black and White high-school dropouts with jobs. Which often unaccounted for factor did they highlight as significant in terms of labor market inequality?

A) class
B) incarceration
C) job training
D) years of work experience

Question 26

A college degree, 5 years of work experience, and computer skills are all examples of:

A) social capital
B) cultural capital
C) human capital
D) work capital

Question 27

If a social scientist compares the earnings of 40-year-old high school-educated White men to similarly situated Black men and finds a disparity, what conclusion can be drawn from these results?

A) That the Black men likely attended less rigorous high schools
B) That labor market discrimination plays a role in the earnings disparity
C) That the White men must be working harder than the Black men
D) That periods of joblessness were not factored in when comparing the two groups

Question 28

Since the late 1960s, the average pay for low-skilled workers has been decreasing. One reason for the decreases is:

A) deindustrialization
B) shifting standards
C) an economic recession
D) cut backs on the minimum wage

Question 29

The deindustrialization of the U.S. economy is a consequence of which of the following factors?

A) The computer revolution and the spread of new technologies that can replace low-skill workers
B) The growth in college enrollment, which increased the supply of high-skill labor in the United States
C) Increases in international trade, which means that U.S.-based corporations have been able to send jobs overseas
D) All of the above

Question 30

According to the _____________, many African Americans live in areas where there has been a reduction in work for low-skilled workers, and African American men in particular often do not have the skills required to secure work in the current economy.

A) residential segregation theory
B) skills mismatch hypothesis
C) deindustrialization perspective
D) "wage of whiteness" perspective

Question 31

If the average pay for White assembly-line workers is $7.15, but it is $6.25 for Black assembly-line workers, this difference in the price of labor between the two groups is an example of:

A) a split labor market
B) categorical exclusion
C) shifting standards
D) race-based job channeling

Question 32

Affirmative action in federal contracting, as described in Lyndon Johnson's Executive Order 11246 and similar civil rights legislation, influenced African Americans and Latinxs by:

A) ending quota programs which had previously helped them gain jobs under federal contracts
B) opening up low-wage work to Chinese immigrants, creating more competition for jobs
C) granting preferential treatment to non-White job applicants
D) helping them secure employment in what had been a primarily White employment sector

Question 33

Some immigrants have attained success through clusters of small businesses that primarily serve people of the same ethnicity and work to facilitate the success of co-ethnics. These clusters of businesses are referred to as:

A) affirmative action programs
B) the ethnic enclave economy
C) split labor markets
D) racialized industries

Question 34

The numeric measure of income inequality based on a scale of 0 to 1 and used for comparison across countries is known as:

A) Gini coefficient
B) Inequality ratio
C) Human capital index
D) Poverty rate

Question 35

Racial inequality in the labor force is apparent by examining trends in:

A) Racial disparities in unemployment rates.
B) Racial disparities in earnings across education levels.
C) Evidence of hiring discrimination from audit studies.
D) All of the above

Question 36

What is the relationship between incarceration and racial differences in men's earnings?

A) Incarceration has an equalizing impact on Black and White men's earnings.
B) After incarceration, Black men's wages grow more slowly than the wages of their White counterparts
C) After incarceration, White men's wages grow more slowly than the wages of their Black counterparts
D) Incarceration has no impact on men's earnings

Question 37

Which of the following is an example of an implicit bias as related to hiring?

A) An employer consciously chooses to hire a Latinx worker over a slightly more qualified Black worker because she believes that Latinxs are more reliable.
B) An audit study finds that employers with no observable or conscious bias tend to rate equally-matched applications more highly for White candidates than Black candidates
C) An employer chooses to hire the applicant with the highest levels of human capital.
D) An employer chooses to hire the applicant with the highest levels of social capital.

Question 38

Which of the following is a structural explanation for racial inequality in the labor market?

A) Overt discrimination
B) Implicit employer bias
C) Human capital differences
D) Deindustrialization

Question 39

The theory that associates the geographic exclusion of Black families from places where jobs are located with racial inequality in the labor market is known as:

A) Deindustrialization
B) Spatial mismatch hypothesis
C) Skills mismatch hypothesis
D) Human capital

Question 40

How does the disproportionate incarceration of Black men perpetuate economic inequality?

A) Incarcerated individuals are not guaranteed the minimum wage and therefore have no or very low earnings for the duration of their incarceration
B) The stigma of a criminal record makes it difficult for formerly incarcerated people to find a job
C) Incarcerated individuals are penalized for time out of the labor force because they are unable to gain work experience while incarcerated
D) All of the above

Question 41

During the 1980s, wages increased for high-skilled jobs, government sector work declined, many unionized jobs went overseas, and part-time and temporary work rose. These are all _________ explanations for labor market inequality.

A) Individual
B) Structural
C) Human capital
D) Social capital

Question 42

The United States has one of the highest levels of income inequality among all advanced economies in the world. How might you argue that this extreme inequality poses a severe problem for communities of color? Support your answer by drawing on two findings presented in Chapter 7.

Question 43

How does the human capital advantage of work experience differ for unskilled White, Hispanic, and African American women? What are the implications of this finding?

Question 44

Is it correct to state that Asian American men, regardless of national origin, have the highest average earnings in the United States? Why or why not?

Question 45

Select two findings presented in Chapter 7, and explain how they evidence the intersection of race and gender in the U.S. labor market.

Question 46

Do Asian American men's high average earnings, relative to other non-White racial/ethnic groups, provide evidence that they do not face discrimination in the labor market? Why or why not?

Question 47

What is the difference between the unemployment rate and the jobless rate?

Question 48

Explain why incarceration rates must be taken into account in order to understand labor market inequality. Support your answer by identifying and describing two specific ways in which incarceration impacts the wage gap between Black and White men.

Question 49

Compare and contrast individual explanations of racial disparities in earnings and employment (i.e., human capital and employer discrimination explanations) with structural explanations of these disparities (i.e., deindustrialization, skills mismatch, and split-labor market explanations). Which of these explanations do you find the most persuasive? Why?

Question 50

Explain how audit studies are designed to reveal the presence or absence of labor market discrimination. How do audit studies differ from, yet complement statistical analyses of racial discrimination in the labor market?

Question 51

What was deindustrialization? Identify and describe these two ways that deindustrialization impacted wages. Which group was hit the hardest by deindustrialization?

Question 52

Describe the split labor market and explain how affirmative action is intended to address this labor market dynamic. In light of the findings presented in Chapter 7, do you think affirmative action has effectively addressed the split labor market? Why or why not?

Question 53

Describe the ethnic enclave economy and explain why people of color might find it an appealing alternative to the conventional labor market. How does the concept of a racial ethnic enclave economy compare to traditional understandings of the ethnic enclave economy? Select and discuss a specific example that illustrates the difference between these two concepts of an enclave economy.

Question 54

What is an implicit bias? How does this concept help us understand discrimination in the labor market?

Question 55

Why are human capital explanations not sufficient to fully explain racial and gender inequality in the labor market?