The Demography of Occupational Prestige: Trends for Black and White Men and Women (2001-2023)

• In Event: 30821 - Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 1

Abstract

Intersectional inequalities in income and wages are well documented by existing research. However, by largely focusing on income and wage gaps along race and gender, stratification research has neglected immaterial and cultural consequences associated with work and occupations—like prestige, status, power, influence, deference, and influence. As such, it remains unclear whether income gaps along race and gender extend to domains like prestige and status. In this paper, I examine trends in occupational prestige among Black and white men and women in the U.S. Merging data from the American Community Survey and the General Social Survey from 2001-2023 (N=24,610,161), I find remarkable consistency in the rank ordering of occupational prestige. Since 2005, white women have enjoyed a statistically significant advantage over all other groups. However, multivariate models suggest that white women’s advantage over white men and Black women can be explained by differences in educational attainment. Still, even after adjusting for demographics, education, and income, Black men continue to score significantly lower occupational prestige compared to all other groups. These novel empirical findings suggest that Black men experience a unique form of labor market discrimination compared to all other groups that prevents them from entering socially prestigious jobs. Theoretically, these findings challenge the double disadvantage hypothesis and highlight future directions for the study of socioeconomic status and the labor market.

Author

• Roberto David Ortiz, Indiana University-Bloomington