Work experience and earnings of middle-aged black and white men, 1965-71

This article compares the work experience and earnings of a group of middle-aged black and white men over a period 1965-71. Differences in the likelihood of holding full-time/full-year jobs, in receiving comparable earnings, and in reducing labor-market activity were examined in relation to health, education, and occupation. Much similarity between the races was found in the frequency with which health affected work, but black men were clearly disadvantaged with respect to education and occupation. Even when these characteristic were similar, black men were less likely than white men to hold full-time, full-year jobs; when they did, they tended to have lower earnings. Racial differences in the proportion of full-time, full-year workers were smaller in 1971 than in 1965, but this shift resulted from a sharper decrease in full-time, full-year work among whites than blacks as they became older rather than from an increase in such employment among blacks. Even though the percentage increase in the median earnings of blacks was greater than that for whites, their 1970 median earnings did not reach the level of the 1965 median earnings of white men. The implications of these findings are that older black men share little, if at all, in the reported labor market and economic gains realized by young black workers. As a result, overall differences in retirement benefits between blacks and whites are likely to continue into the foreseeable future.