National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

The brutal murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police was a stark reminder of the racism that permeates our institutions, threatens Black life, and diminishes us as a nation. We cannot achieve inclusive prosperity without addressing police brutality, and the Atlas team stands in solidarity with those protesting this unjust system and calling for transformative change. We are working hard to finalize the new Atlas system upgrade to share with you later this month, and have been partnering with other data providers to assess the unequal economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by race, gender, nativity, and occupation. Here are a few highlights:

New Analysis: Disaggregated Data on Economic Impacts of COVID-19 for US and 10 Metros

Today, in partnership with Burning Glass Technologies and JPMorgan Chase, we released the most comprehensive analysis to date of the labor market effects of the coronavirus pandemic, aiming to inform equity-focused relief and recovery strategies. In addition to the US, we analyzed 10 metro regions: Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, San Francisco, and Seattle. Our analysis reveals that people of color and immigrants are concentrated in occupations that have experienced the steepest declines in job opportunities and will likely be among the last to recover, putting Black, Latinx, and Native American workers at heightened risk of long-term unemployment. People of color are also overrepresented in low-wage essential jobs, and Native Americans and immigrants are most concentrated in essential jobs where opportunities are declining. Among the 10 regions, the economic impacts of the virus are uneven: metros with large tourism sectors (like Nashville and Miami) have been hit particularly hard, while diversified regional economies with strong tech sectors (like Seattle and SF) have fared somewhat better. Read the full analysis here.

New Profile of Bay Area Essential Workers

In May, the Bay Area Equity Atlas released three new analyses focused on frontline workers in the region, including two deep dives into workforce demographics in Sonoma and Santa Clara counties. We found that frontline workers in these counties and the Bay overall are disproportionately Latinx, Black, and women of color, which could help explain why these populations are more likely to contract COVID-19. Latinx workers represent 22 percent of workers in all industries but 31 percent of frontline workers while Black workers, who account for just 5 percent of all workers in the region, are concentrated in specific frontline industries including public transit (23 percent) and postal services (11 percent). These workers are more likely to live in poverty, lack health insurance, and have no internet access at home. Read our analyses here. Check out media coverage of this research from KQEDSF Gate, and La Opinion.

National Equity Atlas In the News

  • Ron Brownstein at The Atlantic analyzed National Equity Atlas data and corresponded with Atlas team members to inform his new article about how racial inequity is “the crack in the foundation of cities’ new prosperity.” Looking at data on median wages for New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis, he found that racial wage gaps have grown in all of those cities between 1980 and 2015.
     
  • E&E News published an article describing the criticism and subsequent revision of CDC guidelines encouraging workers to commute alone in private vehicles to slow the spread of the coronavirus, lifting up Atlas data showing that nearly 20 percent of Black households and 12 percent of Latinx households do not have access to a car, compared to 6.5 percent of White households. "So yes, there is a race and class bias in saying, 'You can just drive to work,'" said Basav Sen, climate justice project director at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Thank you for your interest in our work.

-- The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

New Analysis Finds People of Color and Immigrants are Disproportionately Harmed by Labor-Market Impacts of COVID-19

Dear Atlas Users,

The brutal murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police was a stark reminder of the racism that permeates our institutions, threatens Black life, and diminishes us as a nation. We cannot achieve inclusive prosperity without addressing police brutality, and the Atlas team stands in solidarity with those protesting this unjust system and calling for transformative change. We are working hard to finalize the new Atlas system upgrade to share with you later this month, and have been partnering with other data providers to assess the unequal economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by race, gender, nativity, and occupation. Here are a few highlights:

New Analysis: Disaggregated Data on Economic Impacts of COVID-19 for US and 10 Metros

Today, in partnership with Burning Glass Technologies and JPMorgan Chase, we released the most comprehensive analysis to date of the labor market effects of the coronavirus pandemic, aiming to inform equity-focused relief and recovery strategies. In addition to the US, we analyzed 10 metro regions: Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, San Francisco, and Seattle. Our analysis reveals that people of color and immigrants are concentrated in occupations that have experienced the steepest declines in job opportunities and will likely be among the last to recover, putting Black, Latinx, and Native American workers at heightened risk of long-term unemployment. People of color are also overrepresented in low-wage essential jobs, and Native Americans and immigrants are most concentrated in essential jobs where opportunities are declining. Among the 10 regions, the economic impacts of the virus are uneven: metros with large tourism sectors (like Nashville and Miami) have been hit particularly hard, while diversified regional economies with strong tech sectors (like Seattle and SF) have fared somewhat better. Read the full analysis here.

New Profile of Bay Area Essential Workers

In May, the Bay Area Equity Atlas released three new analyses focused on frontline workers in the region, including two deep dives into workforce demographics in Sonoma and Santa Clara counties. We found that frontline workers in these counties and the Bay overall are disproportionately Latinx, Black, and women of color, which could help explain why these populations are more likely to contract COVID-19. Latinx workers represent 22 percent of workers in all industries but 31 percent of frontline workers while Black workers, who account for just 5 percent of all workers in the region, are concentrated in specific frontline industries including public transit (23 percent) and postal services (11 percent). These workers are more likely to live in poverty, lack health insurance, and have no internet access at home. Read our analyses here. Check out media coverage of this research from KQEDSF Gate, and La Opinion.

National Equity Atlas In the News

  • Ron Brownstein at The Atlantic analyzed National Equity Atlas data and corresponded with Atlas team members to inform his new article about how racial inequity is “the crack in the foundation of cities’ new prosperity.” Looking at data on median wages for New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis, he found that racial wage gaps have grown in all of those cities between 1980 and 2015.
     
  • E&E News published an article describing the criticism and subsequent revision of CDC guidelines encouraging workers to commute alone in private vehicles to slow the spread of the coronavirus, lifting up Atlas data showing that nearly 20 percent of Black households and 12 percent of Latinx households do not have access to a car, compared to 6.5 percent of White households. "So yes, there is a race and class bias in saying, 'You can just drive to work,'" said Basav Sen, climate justice project director at the Institute for Policy Studies.
     

Thank you for your interest in our work.

-- The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas: Join Us to Talk Disaggregated Data and COVID-19 This Friday

Dear Atlas Users,

We hope that you and your families are staying strong through this difficult time. Our team is in the process of determining how we can best support communities in their response to the outbreak, aligned with the solidarity economics prerogative laid out by PERE director Manuel Pastor in this this new op-ed. We hope you will join us on Friday to inform our approach.

Register Now: Community Listening Session Friday at 12 PT/3 ET
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, its effects are highlighting and deepening the racial inequities entrenched in our economic system. We know that disaggregated data is a crucial tool to push forward policy solutions that center equity in the short-term and lay the foundation for an inclusive recovery. Please join this listening session with Manuel Pastor, Sarah Treuhaft, and others from the Atlas team from 12-1 PT/3-4 ET this Friday, April 3rd to hear how we are responding to rapidly changing conditions and share your data needs and interests to inform our approach going forward. Register here.

New Fact Sheet: Fair Labor Practices Benefit All New Mexicans
When New Mexican employers deny workers their earnings, they harm families and prevent wages from circulating through the local economy. The New Mexico Worker Organizing Collaborative (NMWOC) works to combat this wage theft, and the Atlas team worked with them to develop a fact sheet showing how Latinx immigrant and Native American workers are disproportionately vulnerable to employer theft and highlighting the challenge of weak enforcement. Our analysis found that twenty percent of open wage theft cases without any activity or investigation have been open for over a year. NMWOC will be using this data in their advocacy to protect workers and take back lost wages. Learn more here.

New Brief: Disrupting the Drivers of Inequity in Biloxi
As wages have stagnated for the majority of workers in the U.S. and inequality has skyrocketed, racial inequity has grown. In Biloxi, Mississippi, these inequities are deep, leaving many Black and Latinx households facing racial and geographic barriers to economic opportunity. The coastal community of East Biloxi has the potential to address some of these inequities through investment in the federal Opportunity Zone program. However, this will only happen if there is an intentional focus on lifting up the most vulnerable communities. Download the brief published in partnership with the East Biloxi Community Collaborative to learn more about how to leverage the Opportunity Zones program to benefit low-income residents and people of color.

Access New Local Data on Life Expectancy
Through the United States Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates Project’s (USALEEP) new data tool, you can measure and compare differences in life expectancy in nearly every neighborhood across the country with an easy-to-use interactive map. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) also released updated data for their life expectancy tool which allows users to compare life expectancy in their neighborhood to national averages. These tools will help community leaders examine the factors that may be influencing health differences – such as access to health care, affordable housing, child care, educational opportunities – and target solutions more effectively. Learn more about the USALEEP tool and RWJF tool.

Thank you for your interest in our work!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

Our team has been busy behind the scenes getting our new data and interface ready for you, but also made it to DC last month to share our work at Datapalooza. And we are excited to share new research on race and political power in the Bay Area, revealing how one of the nation’s most diverse regions is making some progress, yet has a long way to go toward political inclusion.

New Analysis: Bay Area Diversity Not Reflected Among Top Elected Officials
With all eyes on the presidential primaries, it is easy to forget about what is happening at the local level — yet local electeds make crucial decisions in arenas like policing, housing, and land use that can have significant equity implications. And while the race and gender of elected officials does not alone determine whether they will advance equitable policies, representation matters. This is why the Bay Area Equity Atlas includes the diversity of electeds as a key measure of community power. Today, the Atlas released new data covering the November 2018 and 2019 elections, and a comprehensive analysis in partnership with Bay Rising. While the region has made some progress on political representation over the past two years, it is still lagging behind: people of color hold 29 percent of top elected offices despite making up 60 percent of the population. API and Latinx community members are particularly underrepresented; they make up 50 percent of the population but hold just 20 percent of elected offices. Read more here

On the Road: The Atlas at Health Datapalooza
Earlier this month, the Atlas team headed to Washington, D.C. for the 2020 Health Datapalooza, a convening of policymakers, regulatory leaders, data analysts, tech start-ups, and community members committed to using data to improve health. To an audience of roughly 50 people, alongside our colleagues from County Health Rankings and Roadmaps and the City Health Dashboard, we discussed data challenges when it comes to existing national surveys and reporting as well as what to do when the most important data does not exist. We highlighted our collection of diversity of electeds in the Bay Area Equity Atlas as one response to this challenge.

Thank you for your interest in our work.

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

Happy Holidays from the National Equity Atlas team! We are proud of the work we did in 2019 to advance the conversation on equitable growth and equip community leaders with data to power campaigns for racial and economic equity. Here are a few highlights:
 

We launched the Bay Area Equity Atlas!
On June 5th, we released our first local data and policy tool: the Bay Area Equity Atlas. Created in partnership with the San Francisco Foundation, the Atlas includes 21 metrics across the foundation’s People, Place, and Power equity framework and covers 271 geographies in the nine-county region. We’ve been thrilled to see communities using the data to protect renters from displacementimprove outcomes for the Latinx population, and develop equity strategies in the suburbs/exurbs, as well as to read the in-depth stories written by local journalists incorporating our data.

Leveraging Data for Local Policy and Systems Change
The dozens of equity profiles we have produced with local partners over the years continue to inform decision-making, organizing, and policy campaigns. Data from the Cincinnati Equitable Growth Profile helped advocates successfully pass a wage equity policy this March, and that same month our Omaha partners received an American Planning Association award for their work using the profile data to drive equitable planning for health, housing, and transportation. In 2019, we worked with community partners in Long Beach (CA), Orange County (CA), and Pinellas County (FL) to develop equity profiles that are now informing local policy discussions.

New Data Driving the Policy Debate on Inclusive Growth
This year, we added data to the Atlas tracking racial equity in entrepreneurship and business growth. We also produced an analysis that classifies regions according to how their economies are shifting with the rise of tech-driven industries, and what strategies can foster shared prosperity, including case studies of Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Stockton. And, we produced fact sheets to inform the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty’s campaigns to protect families from predatory financial services.

Atlas in the News
Our data and reports have been covered by various local and national media outlets and articles, and journalists, as well as community leaders, have used our data in op-eds and articles. See this media coverage here.

Thank you for your interest! We are working hard to bring you updated data and a brand new interface in early 2020, and we are excited to reconnect in 2020.

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Updates

Dear Atlas Users,

Happy Halloween! Our team is busy updating our data, upgrading our technology backbone, and creating a new Equity and Prosperity Index to release early next year. We are happy to see our data being used in opinion pieces making the case for inclusive growth in Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Orange County.

New Report: Regional Economies in Transition

Earlier this month, with support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, we released Regional Economies in Transition: Analyzing Trends in Advanced Industries, Manufacturing, and the Service Sector to Inform Inclusive Growth Strategies, a report that classifies the 150 largest U.S. regions according to three major labor market trends to examine how these evolving conditions are shaping economic opportunity at the regional level. To provide an in-depth illustration of how these interrelated dynamics manifest at the local level, the report is accompanied by case studies of Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Stockton.

What We Heard from You

Thanks to all of you who shared your feedback and ideas on the future of the Atlas last month when we sent out our user survey! Most of you said that you appreciate the site and want to see more of what is available: New indicators and analyses, additional geographies, and more examples of how people are using the data to drive policy change. Some of you mentioned more updated data, which we are working on, and more of a summary of the data, which we hope the forthcoming index will provide. Others asked for more networking and learning opportunities. We will be using this information to develop our fundraising strategy going forward. Missed the opportunity to share feedback? You can still take the survey.

Atlas In the News

Our analysis revealing that Cleveland’s GDP could grow 12 percent per year with racial equity in income was mentioned twice in Crain’s Cleveland Business: first in an editorial for a more dynamic vision for the local economy; and then again in an op-ed connecting the legacy of slavery with present-day racial disparities. An article in Voice of OC in Orange County, California connects equity with the conversation around recasting Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day by lifting up racial disparities highlighted in our equity profile of the region. A KCET article profiling LA County’s Center for Financial Empowerment (CFE) uses our equity profile of Los Angeles to make the case for building economic security in low-income communities. Finally, Tracey Ross from PolicyLink uses the statistic that 106 million people — or one in every three U.S. residents — can be considered economically insecure in her essay in ESSENCE about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ “A Just Society” legislative package; she adds this and other findings from our report, 100 Million and Counting: A Portrait of Economic Insecurity in the United States, to argue for additional ambitious policies to address inequality at the state and local level.

Thank you for your interest in our work!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Updates

In the coming weeks, our team will be updating all of our data and technology infrastructure to make the Atlas an even more powerful tool for local action. What should we focus on to make it work better for you? Please take a moment to inform the future of the Atlas by filling out this short (4 question) survey.

National Equity Atlas Update

When you sign up for our email list (below right), you will receive updates about new Atlas content, events, and examples of equity data in action. 
 
Dear Bay Area Equity Atlas Users:
 
Happy July and welcome to our first monthly update! It has been a terrific first month for the Atlas. Since our June 4th launch, more than 3,000 people have visited the site and we are beginning to hear stories about how people are using Atlas data to inform their work to advance equity. Here is a roundup of our forthcoming events and latest activities.
 
Upcoming Webinar: Using Bay Area Equity Atlas Data to Prevent Displacement and Protect Renters
Data on how the housing crisis is affecting renters is a key ingredient in winning the strong tenant protections needed to stabilize renters and halt displacement. On July 23rd, from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. PST, join the Atlas team and tenant advocates working in Concord, Hayward, Oakland, and San José to learn about how these local leaders are using Atlas data in their organizing and policy campaigns and what renter data you can find on the Atlas. Register here.
 
New Analysis: Bay Area Diversity Not Reflected Among Top Elected Leaders
The Bay Area is one of the most diverse regions in the country, but our analysis of the unique diversity of electeds dataset in the Atlas reveals that Whites (especially men) were overrepresented among elected officials while Latinx and Asian or Pacific Islanders were underrepresented. As of May 2018, 74 percent of top elected officials were White, while 40 percent of the population is White, and only 19 percent of electeds were Latinx or API, although those two groups represent half of the population. Read more.

Data Storytelling: New Partnership with Bay City News 
Helping journalists incorporate a strong equity analysis into their reporting through the use of disaggregated data is one of the Atlas team’s goals, so we are thrilled about our new partnership with Bay City News Service and sister LocalNewsMatters.org website to produce a series of 10 stories drawing on Atlas data. Check out the first two stories: Equity Ripples: Concord Feels the Weight of Bay Area Housing Crisis and Communities of Color Shifting to Suburbs, and follow #BayAreaEquityAtlas for upcoming stories.

Spreading the Equity Data
Our team was happy to conduct a training for the Northern California Grantmakers’ Racial Equity Action Institute cohort of leaders in business, government, nonprofits, and philanthropy. We also presented to the Power of 9 Committee and the Contra Costa Budget Justice Coalition workshop in Antioch. Interested in hosting a presentation or training? Drop us a line at info@bayareaequityatlas.org.
 
Atlas In the News
The launch of the Bay Area Equity Atlas was covered by SFGate, CBS San Francisco, Napa Valley Register and SF Bay. It’s mission, background, and features were also highlighted by Philanthropy News Digest.
 
Thank you!
 
The Bay Equity Atlas team

National Equity Atlas: July Update

Dear Atlas Users,

Greetings from the National Equity Atlas team! This month we are excited to release the first of five data projects we are working on in partnership with community coalitions in New Mexico and Mississippi, with support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Stay tuned for more releases in the coming months.
 
New Fact Sheets Support Economic Justice Policy Campaigns in New Mexico
With the third-highest level of working poverty in the country, many New Mexican families are already struggling to make ends meet, and predatory financial services further strip their wealth and exacerbate financial insecurity. The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty is working to protect low-income communities from predatory lenders and tax preparation services. To support their policy campaigns, the Atlas team produced two fact sheets: one highlighting the impact of predatory lenders on Native American communities, and one describing how expensive tax preparation services cost New Mexican families up to $54 million in 2015. Download the fact sheets here.

Webinars: Data for Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Tenant Protections
Last month, the Atlas team hosted two webinars: Local Data and Strategy for Equitable Entrepreneurship, which took a look at our new entrepreneurship indicators and the strategies that support equitable entrepreneurship, and Using Bay Area Equity Atlas Data to Prevent Displacement and Protect Renters, where tenant advocates working in Concord, Hayward, Oakland, and San Jose presented about how data fits into their organizing and policy campaigns. Both are archived on the PolicyLink YouTube page.
 
In the News
Last month, the St. Pete Catalyst released an interview with Tim Dutton, executive director of Unite Pinellas, about the findings of “An Equity Profile of Pinellas County” and the systemic issues they are planning to address as a result. Data from the Bay Area Equity Atlas informed reporting in articles about: communities of color moving to the suburbs in SF Bay, the housing crisis in Concord in Claycord News & Talk, the lack of affordable housing in Oakland in California Patch, and the lack of diversity of elected officials in the region in SF Gate
 
Thank you for your interest in our work!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Among the 10 Most Populous Cities, African Americans Remain Underrepresented in Business Ownership

 
Examining data on business diversity and growth for 2007 and 2012, we find large Black/White gaps in business ownership across all the 10 largest cities and declining revenues and wages for Black-owned businesses in most of the cities. San Antonio stands out for having positive performance among Black-owned businesses across all indicators.
 

Removing barriers that prevent people of color from starting and growing successful businesses is a crucial inclusive growth strategy. Entrepreneurship is an important pathway for building wealth and addressing the racial wealth gap, as well as for providing self-employment and income. Entrepreneurs of color also play a major role in creating employment opportunities: research shows that entrepreneurs of color are more likely to hire people of color and locate their firms in communities of color.

While businesses owned by people of color today make up a significant and growing share of businesses in cities across the country, entrepreneurs of color remain underrepresented in business ownership – particularly among high-revenue firms and firms with paid employees. Historic and present-day racial discrimination has contributed to racial inequities in business ownership and growth. The racial wealth gap makes it more difficult for people of color to start a business in the first place, and lack of access to capital adds to the challenge.

To help communities understand how they are doing on racial equity in entrepreneurship, the National Equity Atlas now includes four new indicators of entrepreneurship. These indicators are based on data  from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners, a twice-a-decade survey designed to paint a picture of all firms — incorporated or not, with and without paid employees — with annual receipts of $1,000 or more by race, ethnicity, and gender. This survey represents the only data source with sufficient sample sizes to examine race and gender equity in entrepreneurship for all the geographies available in the Atlas, including the largest 100 cities. The latest data on the Atlas is from 2012 – after which point the survey was discontinued and is soon to be replaced by the Annual Business Survey.

Using this data, we examined the representativeness and growth rates of Black-owned businesses in the nation’s 10 largest cities (based on 2010 population) from 2007 to 2012. We focused on cities because many policies that foster entrepreneurship, from tax incentives to small business loan programs operate at the city level. We examined how the largest 10 cities measure up when it comes to measures of growth and success for Black-owned business. We focused only on firms with paid employees due to their greater economic impact on local economies.

Uneven Growth in Black-Owned Firms and Labor Force

Nationally, the average growth rate for black-owned businesses with employees across the top 100 most populous cities was 19 percent. Across the top 10 cities, growth rates ranged from an increase of 18 percent in San Antonio to a decrease of 31 percent in New York City. Phoenix and Houston also had high growth in Black-owned businesses, while San Diego saw a decline of 19 percent.

Comparing the growth of Black-owned firms with the growth of the Black labor force (a proxy for potential business owners), we see that the two cities with the most firm growth also had the greatest labor force growth; San Antonio and Phoenix experienced growth rates upwards of 10 percent in both Black-owned firms and in the size of Black labor force. In Houston, however, there was strong growth in firms but minimal growth in the Black labor force, indicating a rise in the rate of business ownership. On the other end of the spectrum, New York and San Diego saw rapid declines in the number of Black-owned firms alongside growth in the labor force, suggesting a decline in the rate of business ownership. Overall, the relationship between the two measures is weak, suggesting that growth in Black-owned firms is not simply a function of growth in potential business owners.

Black/White Differences in Business Ownership

To compare rates of Black and White entrepreneurship across cities, we can look at the number of firms per 1,000 people in the labor force. Examining the 10 largest cities, there is variation in the rates of entrepreneurship in general — that is, rates for both the Black and White populations are relatively higher in Los Angeles and Houston, and relatively lower in Philadelphia and Chicago – but also the rates for the White population are substantially higher than those for the Black population. Los Angeles is the city with the highest number of Black-owned firms with paid employees per 1,000 in the civilian labor force but it also has the largest Black/White entrepreneurship gap at 70 points — meaning that there are 70 more business owners per 1,000 people in the labor force among the White population. This racial gap appears to be driven by the level of White entrepreneurship — influenced by the fact that often White entrepreneurs have more generational wealth and easier access to the financial capital needed to start a business. Philadelphia has the lowest rates of entrepreneurship for both the White and Black populations, along with the smallest entrepreneurship gap of 36 points.

Declining Revenues for Black-owned Firms

Our most populous cities had mixed success in terms of revenue growth for Black-owned firms, but they declined in eight of the largest 10 cities between 2007 and 2012. The only two cities that saw increases in (inflation-adjusted) revenues per firm for Black-owned firms with paid employees were San Antonio at 26.7 percent (an average increase of about $140,000 per firm) and Phoenix at 1.5 percent (an average increase of about $12,000 per firm). Austin and Philadelphia saw the largest declines in revenues at 41.0 percent and 24.7 percent.

Diverging Growth in Employee Pay Among Black-owned Firms

Another important measure of understanding how well Black-owned businesses are doing is whether they are able to increase pay for their workers over time. This is particularly important given that employee pay among Black-owned firms is generally much lower than in other firms, and because Black-owned firms are more likely to hire Black workers, the ability to increase pay can have a positive impact on the racial earnings gap. For a sense of how far behind Black-owned firms are in the wages they are able to provide, the Survey of Business Owners reports average pay per employee for the United States in 2012 of about $37,400 and the average pay per employee for Black-owned firms of only about $28,400.

Looking at inflation-adjusted annual pay per employee for Black-owned firms between 2007 and 2012, we see that annual pay per employee for Black-owned firms only grew in three of the largest 10 cities — San Antonio (32.9 percent ), New York (17.5 percent), and San Diego (13.2 percent). In contrast, Black-owned businesses saw the greatest declines in annual pay per employee in Philadelphia (-16.1 percent), Phoenix (-14.3 percent), Dallas (-13.5 percent), and Chicago (-13.0 percent).

In addition to per employee pay, San Antonio also scored well on other metrics including experiencing the greatest growth in annual sales for Black-owned firms, one of the lowest White/Black Entrepreneurship gaps, and among the largest increases in the number of Black-owned firms and the size of the Black labor force. This diverged from New York and San Diego where annual pay per employee grew despite declines in the labor force. New York was a particularly interesting case because wages grew even while the city had the seventh highest Black/White entrepreneurship gap.

A Need for Equitable Entrepreneurship Strategies

Across the 10 largest cities, there were large racial gaps in Black and White business ownership everywhere, but some cities did show better performance than others. San Antonio showed consistent positive signs for Black-owned businesses on all measures examined: growth in firms, revenues per firm, employee pay, and Black/White gap in entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, New York showed consistent negative signs with the greatest decline in the number of firms, declining revenues per firm, and one of the largest Black/White entrepreneurship gaps.

Certain factors that are associated with increased success in entrepreneurship include wealth, access to capital, and formal and experience-based human capital, which can consist of formal education or experience running family-owned business. Policies and programs that address any of these barriers should help to increase the number of Black business owners and support their long-term success. Finally, incentive programs that lower financial barriers to entry for Black entrepreneurs could help foster business ownership.

To access data on entrepreneurship for your city, region, or state; and to learn more about policies to expand business ownership for entrepreneurs of color, see the four new indicators available in the Atlas: Firm Diversity, Revenues, Business growth, and Revenue growth.

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