Sexual orientation and full-time monthly earnings, by public and private sector: evidence from Swedish register data

In this paper we explore annual earnings as well as full-time monthly earnings differentials resulting from sexual orientation. We observe that gay males are at an earnings disadvantage compared to male heterosexuals regardless of which earnings measure we use. This earnings disadvantage is found to be larger when we compare gay and heterosexual males who are working full-time. In addition, the disadvantage is larger in the private than in the public sector. Lesbians, however, earn more than heterosexual females. This earnings advantage is considerably smaller when we study full-time monthly rather than annual earnings but an earnings advantage for lesbians at the top of the earnings distribution is documented regardless of which earnings measure we use. In addition, lesbians are doing better than female heterosexuals in the public sector. To sum up, the results indicate that gay males face obstacles on the labor market that hinder them from reaching top-level positions and high earnings. The earnings advantage observed for lesbians is likely to stem from the fact that lesbians devote more time to market work than heterosexual females do.     

No booze? You may lose: Why drinkers earn more money than nondrinkers

A number of theorists assume that drinking has harmful economic effects, but data show that drinking and earnings are positively correlated. We hypothesize that drinking leads to higher earnings by increasing social capital. If drinkers have larger social networks, their earnings should increase. Examining the Gen-eral Social Survey, we find that selfreported drinkers earn 1014 percent more than abstainers, which replicates results from other data sets. We then attempt to differentiate between social and nonsocial drinking by comparing the earn-ings of those who frequent bars at least once per month and those who do not. We find that males who frequent bars at least once per month earn an addi-tional 7 percent on top of the 10 percent drinkers’ premium. These results sug-gest that social drinking leads to increased social capital. We thank Daniel Arce, Phil Cook, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Teresa Beckham Gramm, Nick McKinney, Tom Means, Jake Vigdor, and participants in the Faculty Development Endowment seminar at Rhodes College for helpful comments and suggestions. We gratefully acknowledge Rhodes College for supporting this research through a Faculty Development Endowment grant.     

CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF LAYOFFS

Using probit analysis, this article finds that differential treatment accounts for a substantial portion of the higher layoff rates of blacks in comparison to whites. However, women are found to be considerably less prone to layoffs than men with similar characteristics. Among those who obtained subsequent employment (taking into account the possible selectivity bias in such a subsample), white males are hurt more by layoffs than black males in terms of both short-term and long-term earnings growth; women's earnings are not necessarily affected by layoff at all. However, whites and males are found to be more likely to be reemployed than blacks and females, respectively.     

Nationality and Income Attainment among Native and Immigrant Hispanic Men in the United States*

This study examines earnings inequality between Hispanic-origin men and non-Hispanic white men (referred to as white) using the 1976 Survey of Income and Education. Results show that human capital and labor supply variables have more impact on Hispanic earnings than labor market characteristics. Post-school job experience and weeks worked conform most consistently to the predictions of micro-economic labor theory. Formal schooling, while positively related to earnings, does not uniformly influence job rewards among Hispanic-origin groups. Ecological variables (social and economic organization) of the labor market have less impact on earnings. There is some evidence that whites benefit from the presence of large concentrations of minority workers, while two Hispanic groups—native Mexican and other Spanish men—are negatively affected by high concentrations of Hispanic workers. A composition analysis shows that from 10 to 50 percent of the earnings gap between Hispanic and white men may be attributable to discrimination.     

The Effects of Traditional Family and Gender Ideology on Earnings: Race and Gender Differences

Despite increasing gains in labor market opportunities, women and racial minorities earn less than their white male counterparts. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study explores racial and gender variation in how family and gender ideology shape this wage gap. The findings reveal that traditional role attitudes reduce earnings for African American men, African American women, and white women. However, white women experience the largest threat to wages as a result of conventional gender ideology. Further, the number of children and the timing of childbearing are detrimental to black and white women’s earnings, while neither of these factors hampers men’s earnings.C. André Christie-Mizell, Department of Sociology, University of Akron, 258 Olin Hall, Akron, OH 44325-1905, USA; e-mail: mizell@uakron.edu.     

Race,Sex, and Perception of the Occupational Opportunity Structure among College Students*

Questionnaires were administered to 70 black female, 75 black male, 1,457 white female and 1,429 white male university freshmen. In order to test three alternative theories regarding perceptions of discrimination, analyses of variance related sex, race, and SES to total scores of perceived occupational discrimination against blacks (BDST) and against women (WDST). Blacks perceived significantly more discrimination against black people than did whites; neither sex nor SES differentialed scores on BDST. Black females and white males perceived significantly more discrimination against women than did white females; black females had the highest and white females the lowest WDST scores. A discriminant analysis on white females indicated that high WDST scorers were characterized by an “underdog syndrome” whereas low WDST scorers held internal, individualistic values. The findings indicated the greatest support for the formulation that differential anticipatory socialization into the role of “a person who is discriminated against” characterized white females who perceived more or less discrimination against women.     

Self-employment,earnings, and sexual orientation

Although many studies document differences by sexual orientation in earnings and other labor-market outcomes, little is known about differences in self-employment. Our study contributes to both the self-employment literature and sexual-orientation literature by analyzing differences in self-employment rates and earnings by sexual orientation. Gay men are less likely to be self-employed than married men, whereas lesbians are equally likely to be self-employed as married women. We find that gay men earn less than married men. We do find, however, that for those gay men who are self-employed, there is little evidence of a further earnings penalty, at least among full-time workers. Lesbians earn at least as much as married women, but receive no further earnings premium—or penalty—by being self-employed, again among full-time workers.     

Race,Region, and Earnings: Blacks and Whites in the South

Abstract Using data from the 1980 Public-Use Micro Sample (PUMS) A-file, we examine the effect of region on black and white earnings within the Black Belt and the rest of the South. We find that Black Belt residence depresses earnings for both blacks and whites, more or less equally. There was no support for the hypothesis that there would be a greater penalty to being black in the Black Belt, compared to being black in the non-Black Belt South. It is the additive effects of race and region that lead to lower earnings for Black Belt blacks. We conclude that region is a useful theoretical concept which needs to be more adequately theorized and incorporated into sociological analyses.     

DO RACE AND ETHNICITY MATTER AMONG FRIENDS?

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (or Add Health), a nationally representative sample of adolescents in 1994–1995, we examine if and how friendship activities differ among interracial, interethnic, and interethnic friendships of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian youths. We find that best friends are more likely than higher-order friends to be from the same ethnic group and that best friends report more shared activities during the past week than do their higher-order friendship counterparts. Hence, we argue that shared activities is a useful indicator of friendship intimacy. In general, interracial friends report fewer shared activities than do intraracial friends, although this difference is strongest for white respondents. Moreover, we find that white, Asian, and Hispanic youths all report fewer activities with their black friends. We find little difference in friendship activities between interethnic and intraethnic friendships. Our findings suggest that, even when youths manage to break racial boundaries in friendship selection, these friendships face greater challenges than do those between individuals of the same race.     

Employment-based retirement plan participation: geographic differences and trends, 2010

LATEST DATA: This Issue Brief examines the level of participation by workers in public- and private-sector employment-based pension or retirement plans, based on the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2011 Current Population Survey (CPS), the most recent data currently available (for year-end 2010). SPONSORSHIP RATE: Among all working-age (21-64) wage and salary employees, 54.2 percent worked for an employer or union that sponsored a retirement plan in 2010. Among full-time, full-year wage and salary workers ages 21-64 (those with the strongest connection to the work force), 61.6 percent worked for an employer or union that sponsors a plan. PARTICIPATION LEVEL: Among full-time, full-year wage and salary workers ages 21-64, 54.5 percent participated in a retirement plan. TREND: This is virtually unchanged from 54.4 percent in 2009. Participation trends increased significantly in the late 1990s, and decreased in 2001 and 2002. In 2003 and 2004, the participation trend flattened out. The retirement plan participation level subsequently declined in 2005 and 2006, before a significant increase in 2007. Slight declines occurred in 2008 and 2009, followed by a flattening out of the trend in 2010. AGE: Participation increased with age (61.4 percent for wage and salary workers ages 55-64, compared with 29.2 percent for those ages 21-24). GENDER: Among wage and salary workers ages 21-64, men had a higher participation level than women, but among full-time, full-year workers, women had a higher percentage participating than men (55.5 percent for women, compared with 53.8 percent for men). Female workers' lower probability of participation among wage and salary workers results from their overall lower earnings and lower rates of full-time work in comparison with males. RACE: Hispanic wage and salary workers were significantly less likely than both white and black workers to participate in a retirement plan. The gap between the percentages of black and white plan participants that exists overall narrows when compared across earnings levels. GEOGRAPHIC DIFFERENCES: Wage and salary workers in the South and West had the lowest participation levels (Florida had the lowest percentage, at 43.7 percent) while the upper Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast had the highest levels (West Virginia had the highest participation level, at 64.2 percent). OTHER FACTORS: White, more highly educated, higher-income, and married workers are more likely to participate than their counterparts.     

Personality traits and bidding behavior in competing auctions

We study strategic behavior in an “alternating recognition” model of English auctions with competing sellers, which mimics a structure that is common in online marketplaces such as eBay. To relate decision making in our experimental setting to individual differences, we measure subjects’ personality with the Big-Five Trait Taxonomy. Our results suggest that personality has meaningful predictive power in explaining bidding behavior but only for female subjects. Further, females also earn more than males and the gender gap in earnings is large and significant. Finally, personality indirectly affects earnings through the choice of strategies but has no direct effect on earnings, controlling for strategies. This is an important result in that it demonstrates the mechanism through which personality matters in our setting.     

Gender and income in pharmacy: human capital and gender stratification theories revisited

This is a case study of gender and earnings in pharmacy--a profession characterized by its rapid recruitment of female practitioners. We try to account for disparities in earnings between male and female pharmacists in Ontario with the aid of human capital theory and gender stratification theory. Data is drawn from a random sample of 463 Ontario pharmacists. We find a consistent sex gap in earnings regardless of occupational level of practitioners (i.e. owner, manager or employee) and net of such factors as hours worked, commitment to work, hours devoted to childcare, absences from the labour market, and years since graduation. Instead, the main reason why women in pharmacy earn less than males is because they remain employees throughout their careers. However, we are less successful at identifying the additional factors responsible for the depressed earnings of female practitioners. We discuss our findings in light of the claims of gender stratification and human capital theory.     

Poverty and health: older minority women and the rise of the female-headed household

This analysis uses the 1984 Survey on Aging (SOA) supplement to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to compare the relative impacts of poverty and health on the propensity of unmarried older black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white women to live with family. The results reveal that for blacks and Hispanics, economics are more significant than health in determining whether a woman lives with her children. Our findings also show that black unmarried elderly females are more likely than similar non-Hispanic white women to head their households. The literature and our findings suggest that black and Hispanic older women have fewer options in living arrangements than non-Hispanic older women in the event of diminished health.     

Occupational Race Segregation,Globalization, and White Advantage: White-Black Earnings Inequality in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Addressing the need to systematically assess the materialist foundations of color-blind racism, we use insights from critical race theory to investigate the metropolitan-level racial inequality at the turn of the century. Namely, we examine the association between occupational race segregation and white advantage (i.e., white-black earnings inequality) for men and women in 202 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas in the year 2000. We find that occupational race segregation exacerbates white advantage for both male and female workers, supporting the tenets of the materialist conception of color-blind racism. We also consider how processes of globalization and labor market transformation impact white advantage. Our findings indicate that global capital increases white advantage for males, whereas foreign direct investment and casualization serve to decrease it. They also indicate that exports decrease white advantage for females, whereas percent foreign born increases it.     

Economic Motivations and Moral Controls Regulating Discrimination against Black and Hispanic Diners

Racial discrimination in restaurant service is often depicted as an economically rational response to servers' concerns about perceived inadequate tipping by black and/or Hispanic customers. However, drawing from sociological and criminological theories that critique the limits of economic models of human behavior, we argue that discrimination against black and Hispanic diners may be inhibited by servers' moral concerns about discrimination. Further, such moral restraints might also buffer the influence of economic motives regulating discrimination. Ordinal logistic regression models of survey data collected from a sample of U.S. restaurant servers (N = 872) are employed to assess whether race‐based perceptions of customers' tipping behaviors and moral restraints interact to predict the prevalence and frequency of servers' self‐reported discrimination against black and Hispanic diners. Results suggest that servers' economically motivated, race‐based beliefs about the tipping practices of black, Hispanic, and white customers are associated with self‐reported discrimination. Specifically, we find that servers who harbor negative attitudes toward the tipping practices of customers of color (i.e., blacks or Hispanics) or positive attitudes toward whites' tipping behaviors are also more likely to report withholding effort from their black and Hispanic patrons. However, servers with strong moral restraints are more likely to refrain from discriminating against black and Hispanic diners, or do so less frequently, despite expressing concerns about inadequate tipping practices among black and Hispanic vis‐à‐vis white clientele.     

Substance use on school property among students attending alternative high schools in the United States

We analyzed nationally representative data from the 1998 National Alternative High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to determine the prevalence of substance use on school property among alternative high school students in the United States, to describe the characteristics of students who use substances on school property, and to examine the interrelationships of substance-use behaviors. During the 30 days preceding the survey, nearly 48 percent of students used at least one substance on school property and 17 percent used more than one substance on school property. Males were more likely than females and white students were more likely than black or Hispanic students to have used substances on school property. The results of this and other studies suggest that school administrators, public health practitioners, and policy makers should work to improve strategies for reducing substance use in this heterogeneous, hard-to-reach population.     

Individual and contextual risks of death among race and ethnic groups in the United States

An emerging area of social science research focuses on individual-level and contextual-level determinants of black-white adult mortality differentials in the United States. However, no research on adult mortality differentials has distinguished multiple Hispanic subgroups and explored the role of nativity at both the individual and contextual levels for small geographic areas. Using the 1986-1997 National Health Interview Survey-National Death Index linked file, we examine the effects of individual and contextual factors on black-white and multiple Hispanic subgroups (Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and "other" Hispanic) differentials in adult mortality. In addition, we use a new, innovative geographic area--the very small area--as our contextual unit of analysis. We find that excess mortality risks for all race-ethnic groups considered are associated with not only individual characteristics, but also neighborhood characteristics. In addition, percent foreign born in a neighborhood is protective of Hispanic subgroup mortality for Puerto Rican, Mexican American, and "other" Hispanic adults in the 45-64 age category. These findings indicate a need for future research to examine more throughly the pathways through which neighborhood factors affect multiple Hispanic subgroup mortality and the role of nativity as a protective factor for older adult Hispanic mortality.     

THE IMPLICATIONS OF CHOOSING "NO RACE" ON THE SALIENCE OF HISPANIC IDENTITY: How Racial and Ethnic Backgrounds Intersect among Hispanic Adolescents

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a nationally representative sample of youth from 7th to 12th grades, we examined how racial and ethnic identification overlap among Hispanic adolescents. We evaluated the relative proximity between race and ethnic identifiers among Hispanics. Empirical analyses suggest that the racial identification of other students at school has a significant impact on the odds of choosing particular racial identifiers. Both Hispanic and non-Hispanic schoolmates' racial identification is related to the racial identification of Hispanic adolescents. We also find evidence that both ethnicity and race are distinct stratifiers among Hispanics. Overall, our findings support the notion that Hispanic may be a more meaningful "racial" identity than black, white, or other, but we also find that racial identification and ethnic background are still important and meaningful dividers among Hispanic youth.     

The impact of changing union density on earnings inequality: Evidence from the private and public sectors

The degree of inequality in U.S. earnings has varied considerably over the past 20 years, including a dramatic, much documented rise since 1980. We examine empirically how changes in union density have contributed to these trends, using Current Population Survey data for 1977 and 1992. Inequality is measured as the mean logarithmic deviation of individual earnings from overall average earnings. A decomposition of the change in the inequality index reveals that decreases in private-sector union density have accounted for about 25 percent of the overall rise in earnings inequality during the past 15 years. Decompositions based on public-sector earnings indicate that increases in union density have produced inequality that is 29 percent below what it otherwise would have been. The analysis demonstrates that, among private sector workers, the results are sensitive to the population being studied: Changing union density accounts for 13 percent of the rise among prime aged males (a noticeably smaller fraction than found in existing studies) and only 4 percent among females and non-prime-aged males. The analysis also demonstrates that covariances between the subsamples explain why the union effect is larger in percentage terms for the whole sample than it is in either subsample.