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For Blacks, Income Ladder More Like Chute

Middle-class children much less likely to pass parents than whites

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 13, 2007 7:07 PM CST
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(Newser) – Middle-class African Americans are much less likely to surpass their parents’ income than their white counterparts, a new study finds. Overall, two-thirds of American adults earned more than their parents, adjusted for inflation. But among the black middle class, 69% are making less. “Black children and white children do not have equal chances of moving up the income ladder,” the study’s author concludes.

Theories surround the disparity, the Wall Street Journal says. Lower marriage rates and less asset-rich inheritances could have contributed. The gap persisted in other income levels, but less drastically: Among the poor, 90% of whites and 73% of blacks surpassed their parents. Overall, America looks economically mobile, with the majority of respondents ending in a different class than their parents.

  (Index Open)
A new study of economic mobility has found that blacks born into the middle class in the late 1960s are far more likely than whites to earn less than their parents.
A new study of economic mobility has found that blacks born into the middle class in the late 1960s are far more likely than whites to earn less than their parents.   (Shutterstock.com)
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Link to the study and a look at its key findings
Economic Mobility Project

Nearly half of black middle class descends into poverty
Washington Post

Income gap grows
Associated Press

North Carolina studies impact of black population, finds income gap
News & Observer (Raleigh)

 
race • parenting • middle class • racial inequality

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