• The data comes from IPUMS USA, which collects, preserves and harmonizes US census microdata from decennial censuses and American Community Surveys from 2000 to present.
• The data dictionary is available at this hyperlink. 

Who is getting better? Getting worse? Staying the same?

• White workers are earning much higher than the average earner and much nearly ten dollars more than people of color. Their earning power increased from 2000 to 2010 and has stayed relatively consistent since then.
• Black workers steadily increased their median hourly wage from 2000 through 2017 and that earning power was unchanged through 2019.
• Asian American Pacific Islander workers were just below the average median hourly wage across all workers. Athough they experienced a dip in 2017 to $18.10, they bounced back to $19.40 by 2019.
• Latino workers exerienced the lowest earning power, increasing by $1.20 over a two decade period.

What strategies can make a difference based on scoring highest across four criteria: Impact, Feasibility, Specificity, and Equity?

1. Support working parents to complete college, credentialing, or job training by providing low cost child care (in high quality education settings) while they finish their coursework
2. Launch college and career readiness intervention in more school districts and target the intervention to students of color
3. Establish or grow businesses/employers in communities of color by engaging city or county governments to create additional tax incentive programs that leverage the federal dollars from Opportunities Zones

What factors in the county or beyond are helping racial disparities in the data to deepen? Why?

• Jobs in more affluent neighborhoods tend to pay at the median hourly wage or higher. In our county, white people are more concentrated in the affluent parts of our largest cities.
  • "White flight" occured in the 70s during the move to racially integrate schools in the urban core of our cities. As they moved outside of the urban core, jobs that paid a higher wage moved with them. So did businesses that catered to people with more disposable income.
• Jobs in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of black and brown tend to be from employment categories that pay a lower wage (unskilled labor, etc.)
• Educational opportunities and career tracks look very different in more affluent or less affluent neighborhoods.
  • School districts serving more affluent neighborhoods pay better, attract high quality teachers, and consistently deliver high rates of high school completion and enrollment in postsecondary institutions. More affluent neighborhoods have much higher concentrations of white student.
  • School districts serving less affluent neighborhoods operate from smaller tax bases and are less resourced. Rates of high school completion and postsecondary enrollment/completion, especially for black and brown students, tend to be much lower.
  • COVID posed a significant setback for graduation rates in school districts of less affluent communities. Data suggests that households in less affluent communities, which tend to be black or brown, have adults who work two or more jobs. Many of these jobs were designated essential worker status during COVID, which likely caused students to choose between school and homework versus work.

What factors in the community or beyond are preventing racial disparities in the data from deepening? Why?

• Several cities in the county collectively launched a regional, evidence-based model to help students in grades 6-12 to develop a post-high school plan based on their developing interests and aptitudes. While it is being implemented simultaneously in school districts across the region, it is anticipated that it will create a layer of postsecondary planning for students in less affluent neighborhoods who might otherwise go without. The objective of this model is to successfully position all students for jobs that pay a wage higher than the countys median hourly wage.
• In 2020, a local foundation launched a job shadow initiative in school districts with lower than a 70% high school graduation rate. The project provides students "on the bubble" for graduation with a four week job shadow opportunity
• Two of the larger cities in our county were recently awarded Opportunity Zones in their urban centers, which uses tax incentives to attract in-demand manufacturers and employers. Workers in these Opportunity Zones will likely benefit from jobs that pay well above the median wage.

What partners can help to address the factors? What contribution could they make?

• Child care centers and Head Start centers - high quality learning opportunities for children of parents participating in workforce development opportunities
• City government - policy change
• School districts - teaching support, college and career counseling, mentorship opportunities
• Non profit organizations - funding
• Chamber of Commerce, Black Chamber of Commerce, and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce - business advocacy, mentorship opportunities
• Postsecondary education network, including local community college and universities serving the region - educational opportunities for students of color
• Postsecondary training and credentializing programs - job training opportunities for students of color
• NAACP, LULAC and NCLR - scholarships

Based on the factors, what changes in systems, policies, practices, or even direct service could help to reduce racial disparities for people in this county?

• Engage city or county governments to leverage the Opportunities Zones (which are federal dollars) with additional tax incentives (from a local level) to attract businesses
• Engage funding institutions (i.e. United Way, private foundations) to invest in child care slots that can help to support working parents who are also in school
• Take to scale, by increasing to more and more school districts serving black and brown students, the college and career readiness intervention already operating in several cities in the county
• Engage Chambers of Commerce to promote business growth in less affluent neighborhoods and support mentorship opportunities for students with STEM related businesses
• Promote scholarship opportunities for students of color
• Support working parents to complete college, credentialing, or job training by providing low cost child care (in high quality education settings) while they finish their coursework

Strategy: Support working parents to complete college, credentialing, or job training by providing low cost child care (in high quality education settings) while they finish their coursework

Work Plan:

Strategy: Launch college and career readiness intervention in more school districts and target the intervention to students of color

Work Plan:

Strategy: Establish or grow businesses/employers in communities of color by engaging city or county governments to create additional tax incentive programs that leverage the federal dollars from Opportunities Zones

Work Plan: