Title: INCOME GAP BETWEEN RACES WIDE AS IN 1960, STUDY FINDS - The New York Times
Headings: INCOME GAP BETWEEN RACES WIDE AS IN 1960, STUDY FINDS
INCOME GAP BETWEEN RACES WIDE AS IN 1960, STUDY FINDS
By John Herbers, Special To the New York Times
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Content: Black women, on the other hand, have experienced no decline in employment. Mr. Smith noted that in 1970, 62 percent of black women over 18 were married and that by 1981 the percentage had dropped to 48. Married women are having fewer children, in part because most of them work, while an ever-increasing proportion of black children are born to single women, he said. The data used for the report were collected for the most part before President Reagan took office in January 1981, and thus no conclusions could be drawn from them about the effect of his Administration's programs on blacks. Highlights of the study, which was supported by the New World Foundation and the Field Foundation, follow. Incomes
Median family income for both blacks and whites has increased over two decades. In 1960 the black median, measured in 1981 dollars to account for inflation, was $9,919, compared with $17,259 for whites. By 1981 the figures were $13,266 for blacks and $23,517 for whites. In the 1960's the disparity between black and white median incomes decreased, so that by 1970, black income as a percent of white income had risen to 61 percent from 55 percent. But in the next decade most of that gain was lost, and in 1981, median black income was 56 percent of that for white families.