Source: Business Insider
Black workers have historically earned far less than white workers.
In 2018, the average Black worker earned just 62% of what the average white worker made.
Similarly, overall income for Black Americans was about 42% lower than for whites in 2018.
There’s a similar disparity at the household level. Lower incomes mean that the poverty rate for Black families is over twice that of white families.
The aggregate wealth white households have held has historically far outstripped that held by the Black community. And while it has increased for white people since the 1980s, it’s remained stagnant for Black people.
This chart shows the aggregate amount of wealth across groups. While there are about six times as many white Americans as Black Americans, the aggregate wealth held by the former is about 17 times that held by the latter.
One of the contributing factors to the household wealth disparity is student loans.
A 2018 analysis by the left-leaning think tank The Roosevelt Institute suggested that without student loan debt, the wealth gap between young white and Black households would be vastly lower.