The Dividends of Diversity?: Linking Work Group Racial Composition, Minority Status, and Within-Race Inequality

• In Event: 409 - Regular Session. Affirmative Action

Abstract

This article explores within-race wage inequality resulting from the racial composition of workplaces. Specifically, we investigate how being in the racial minority among one’s coworkers, or being a different race from one’s supervisor, is associated with wages relative to co-ethnics working in same-race contexts. We further distinguish between horizontal and vertical workplace racial composition, as the race of peers and the race of superiors respectively, and assess whether the association between workplace characteristics and wages varies by racial group. Drawing on data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, we find – net of human capital, job, and workplace controls – that workplace racial composition contributes to within-race wage differentials. Our findings lend little support to the idea that individual traits, occupation, or firm level characteristics are the only sources for this wage differential. Even after controlling for those factors, there is a benefit associated with working with whites that co-ethnics working in similar jobs do not receive. Among blacks, horizontal racial composition is associated to within-race wage differences, but vertical racial composition is correlated with white and Latino within-race wage differences. Based on these findings, we argue that stratification scholars must attend to meso-level mechanisms – specifically those within workplaces – to fully understand the drivers of within-race wage inequality. We also argue that these findings have implications for understanding workplace policies aimed at increasing racial and ethnic diversity.

Authors

• Corey D. Fields, Stanford University

• Marion Coddou, Stanford University

• Koji Rafael Chavez, Stanford University