Black and Latinx Workers Reap Lower Rewards than White Workers from Years Spent Working in Big Cities

The large labor markets of big cities offer greater possibilities for workers to gain skills and experience through successively better employment opportunities. This "experience effect" contributes to the higher average wages that are found in big cities compared to the economy as a whole. Racial wage inequality is also higher in bigger cities than in the economy on average. We offer an explanation for this pattern, demonstrating that there is substantial racial inequality in the economic returns to work experience acquired in big cities. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 we find that each year of work experience in a big city increases Black and Latinx workers' wages by about one quarter to half as much as White workers' wages. A substantial amount of this inequality can be explained by further racial disparities in the benefits of high-skill work experience. This research identifies a heretofore unknown source of inequality that is distinctly urban in nature, and expands our knowledge of the challenges to reaching inter-racial wage equality.

大型城市的庞大劳动力市场，为劳动者通过逐步升级的就业机会获取技能与工作经验提供了更多可能。这一‘经验效应（experience effect）’正是大城市平均薪资水平高于整体经济体平均水平的原因之一。大城市中的种族薪资不平等程度也高于整体经济体的平均水平。针对这一现象，我们提出了相应解释，证明大城市中积累的工作经验所带来的经济回报存在显著的种族不平等。基于1979年全国青年纵向调查（National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979）的数据，我们发现：在大城市中每积累一年工作经验，黑人和拉丁裔劳动者的薪资涨幅仅约为白人劳动者的四分之一至二分之一。这类不平等中的很大一部分，可由高技能工作经验所带来的经济收益存在进一步的种族差异来解释。本研究揭示了此前未被发现的、本质上具有鲜明城市特征的不平等来源，并拓展了我们对于实现跨种族薪资平等所面临挑战的认知。