Are Women and Blacks Closing the Gap? Salary Discrimination in American Science during the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

The authors use two longitudinal surveys of American scientists conducted by the Census Bureau, one for the years 1972–76 and one for the years 1982–86, to estimate salary discrimination against black scientists and female scientists. In counterpoint to the results of some other studies, which have suggested that race- and gender-based salary discrimination has been either declining or stable in many occupations, this analysis provides evidence that salary discrimination against black scientists and female scientists worsened between the 1970s and the 1980s. Female scientists earned about 12% less than similarly qualified male scientists in 1972, but 14% less in 1982; and black scientists earned about the same amount as white scientists in 1972, but 6% less in 1982.