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Title: Black Women and Vulnerable Work Occupational Crowding of Black Women Lowers Their Wages and Well-Being

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2024

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Abstract: Employment has grave implications for workers’ well-being. In this work, we explore how Black women are sorted into what we call “vulnerable work.” Vulnerable work includes work characteristics such as wages, hours, health insurance and retirement benefits, as well as work arrangements that often come with less security, predictability, and economic renumeration—namely independent contracting, contract work, temp agency work, and on-call/day work. We use occupational crowding methodology (Bergmann 1974; Gibson, Darity, and Myers 1998; Hamilton 2006) to understand if Black women are under- or overrepresented in occupations that are more vulnerable, taking into account educational attainment and educational requirements of the work. We compare Black women’s representation with multiple groups, acknowledging marginalization at work across multiple identities (Crenshaw 1989): within race (compared with Black men), within gender (compared with white women), and across both race and gender (compared with white men). A few findings are as follows:  Black women are underrepresented in higher-paying occupations across both race and gender—in contrast to white men, white women, and Black men.  Black women tended to be underrepresented in occupations with higher rates of employer-sponsored health insurance compared with white men but overrepresented in occupations with higher retirement coverage rates compared with white women.  Black women are also overrepresented in occupations that have fewer hours compared with white men and Black men.  Findings on alternative work are below: » As shares of independent contractors and contract workers in occupations rise, the representation of Black women falls significantly more compared with white men and Black men (and with white women as independent contractors). Large diversity exists in the types of work that independent contractors and contract workers perform, and future studies could examine these forms of employment. » The share of temp agency workers in occupations (an arrangement with the lowest benefit rates and pay) has a positive and significant relationship with crowding rates for Black women compared with white men. These findings suggest the need for policies that prevent employer discrimination, boost collective bargaining, and provide a greater social safety net, regardless of connection to an employer.

Url: https://www.urban.org/research/publication/black-women-and-vulnerable-work

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Authors: Biu, Ofronama; Adu-Gyamfi, Afia

Publisher: Urban Institute

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Race and Ethnicity

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