Black–white wage gaps widen across multiple measures: Black–white wages gaps at different points in the wage distribution, by education, and regression-based, 2000, 2007, and 2019

2000 2007 2019
Average 21.8% 23.5% 26.5%
10th percentile 6.2% 8.7% 9.0%
Median 20.8% 22.3% 24.4%
95th percentile 28.0% 28.3% 34.7%
 High school 15.3% 17.4% 18.3%
 College 17.2% 19.2% 22.5%
 Advanced degree 12.5% 16.7% 17.6%
Regression-based 10.2% 12.2% 14.9%

Notes: Sample based on all workers ages 16 and older. The xth-percentile wage is the wage at which x% of wage earners earn less and (100-x)% earn more. Educational attainment is based on mutually exclusive categories: e.g., high school is high school only, etc. Similar results are found for those with less than high school or some college. The regression-adjusted black–white wage gap controls for education, age, gender, and region.

Source: Author’s analysis of EPI Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0 (2020), https://microdata.epi.org.

View the underlying data on epi.org.