News and Politics | July 09, 2008 | 3 comments

How Much Does It Cost You in Wages if You Sound Black?

source: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/how-much-does-it-cost-you-in-wages-if-you-s...

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bshipp
Fascinating new research by my University of Chicago colleague, Jeffrey Grogger, compares the wages of people who “sound black” when they talk to those who do not.

His main finding: blacks who “sound black” earn salaries that are 10 percent lower than blacks who do not “sound black,” even after controlling for measures of intelligence, experience in the work force, and other factors that influence how much people earn. (For what it is worth, whites who “sound black” earn 6 percent lower than other whites.)
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3 comments // How Much Does It Cost You in Wages if You Sound Black?

  • Liberal_Extinction
    • 0
      Liberal_Extinction  

    • Perhaps those doing the study are turning this into a race issue. I don't care what color someone is, if they are using street slang and sound like a moron, they should be paid less. Skin color is irrelevant, who in their right mind would want to pay the same for 2 people to do a job and interact with their customers if 1 spoke like an educated person (leaves a positive image of the company) and the other spoke like some gang bangin' piece of shit (piss poor image of a company)?

      You get what you pay for...

    • 3 years ago
  • THEREisHOPE
    • 0
      THEREisHOPE  

    • I don't even know where to beguine.

      "Sounding black?" How exactly does one sound black? There is no physiological difference between the voice box of a white person and a black person.

      I could understand an ignorant person making less money, but a black person? Thats racist.

    • 3 years ago
  • stonefree87
    • 0
      stonefree87  
    • THEREisHOPE:

      I think thats the whole point. There is a stereotypical way of speech that some people associate with black people. I think people in the southern United States know what I'm talking about.

      Some might call it "ebonics"; basically the joining of multiple word into one, slight slurring of the speech, and poor pronunciation. White people from the same region are just as guilty of it.

      Dont get me wrong. I agree that it is racist to assume that because someone has a particular accent they are less intelligent.

    • 3 years ago
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