Who Can Access the “Good” Jobs? Racial Disparities in Employment among Young Men Who Work in Paid Care

Abstract

Men have slowly increased their presence in paid care jobs that have long been considered as “women’s jobs.” But job growth in the paid care sector is polarized between “good” jobs and “bad” jobs in terms of pay and job security, and racial minority men are more likely to enter low-paying care-work jobs. Using work history data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and 1997, this study examines the patterns and mechanisms of racial disparity in young men’s access to jobs of varying pay levels in the care-work sector and how such patterns have changed as the labor market has become more precarious and unequal. Findings suggest that young black men—especially those without a college education—have been increasingly excluded from accessing “good” jobs in the paid care sector. Moreover, this black-white disparity cannot be fully explained by racial differences in individual-level characteristics.