This dashboard provides critical data on Black-White income gaps for the nation, all 50 states, the 150 largest metro regions, and the 100 largest cities. It includes insights on trends over time, inequities in educational attainment, the impacts of education on earnings, and the economic benefits of closing racial gaps in wages and employment.

• Racial gaps in educational attainment are persistent. One in five Black adults have a college degree, compared to more than one in three White adults.
• Higher education alone does not eliminate wage inequities. Black college grads earn an average of $0.80 for every dollar earned by their White counterparts.
• If racial income gaps were closed, the typical Black worker would see a 63% increase in income.

These disparities are driven by deep-seated anti-Black racism. Gaps in educational attainment derive from residential segregation, neighborhhood disinvestment, inequitable school funding formulas, and barriers to higher education, including rising costs. Racial wage gaps stem from these educational inequities and are also perpetuated by employer bias, discrimination, and entrenched occupational segregation that crowds women and workers of color into the lowest-paid occupations.

• Ensure access to higher education for immigrant students by providing in-state tuition rates regardless of their immigrant status and by increasing access to financial aid and scholarships.
• Create cradle-to-career pipelines for vulnerable youth and invest in universal pre-K.
• At the federal level, lower and/or eliminate tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities, tribal colleges, community colleges, trade schools, and apprenticeship programs, provide additional financial assistance to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, increase and expand access to Pell Grants, and eliminate current student loan debt for all.
• Raise the floor on low-wage work by increasing the minimum wage or enacting living-wage laws, and adopting or expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Institute a federal jobs guarantee, guarantee workers’ right to organize at scale, end right-to-work laws, enact a $15/hour minimum wage for all workers, increase the tax rate on capital gains and dividend income, and enforce corporate tax responsibilities by eliminating tax loopholes.
• Implement equitable economic development and community wealth-building strategies that bring jobs, sustainable infrastructure, and business opportunities to residents of high-poverty neighborhoods.
• Ensure enforcement of fair housing laws and the application of HUD's commitment to "affirmatively further fair housing."
• Dismantle exclusionary zoning policies and develop new affordable homes in high-opportunity neighborhoods.

This dashboard includes data from the Educational Attainment, Wages: Median, and Income Inequality indicators on the National Equity Atlas. The original data source is  US Census American Community Survey microdata from IPUMS USA.

To highlight our focus on the Black population, we removed racial/ethnic groups other than Black and White from most of the displays and emphasized the Black population data through color and size, as well as contextual narrative around the disparities visible in the dashboards.

Created by the National Equity Atlas in partnership with Chantilly Juggernauth of Lovelytics.