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Understanding why Black Women are not Working Longer

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  • Joanna Lahey

Abstract

Black women in current cohorts ages 50 to 72 years have lower employment than similar white women, despite having had higher employment when they were middle-aged and younger. Earlier cohorts of older black women also worked more than their white counterparts. Although it is not surprising that white women’s employment should catch up to that of black women given trends in increasing female labor force participation, it is surprising that it should surpass that of black women. This paper discusses factors that contribute to this differential change over time. Changes in education, marital status, home-ownership, welfare, wealth, and cognition cannot explain this trend, whereas changes in occupation, industry, health, and gross motor functioning may explain some of the trend. [Working Paper 22680]

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  • Joanna Lahey, 2016. "Understanding why Black Women are not Working Longer," Working Papers id:11370, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:11370
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    Cited by:

    1. Francisco Perez-Arce & Maria J. Prados & Tarra Kohli, 2018. "The Decline in the U.S. Labor Force Participation Rate," Working Papers wp385, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Black women; lower employment; white women; labor force participation; education; marital status; home-ownership; welfare; wealth; and cognition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor

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