Report: Wage Disparities in Monroe County

This report was written in collaboration between the Mayor's Office of Innovation and the Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative (RMAPI), and released in July 2017. Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to explore the demographic and earning disparities in the local workforce in Monroe County. It focuses on people who live in poverty, despite being employed, and aims to help the community better understand major contributing factors preventing residents from becoming self-sufficient. It is meant to augment and contextualize existing data on the state of poverty in Rocheser and to inform the strategy deployed by the Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative. This report includes analysis on the correlations between the industries in which Rochester residents in poverty are employed, the wages they earn, and the hours that they work. It also examines these factors by race, gender, educational attainment, and physical ability. Through the analysis of several data sources, inlcuding the U.S. Census Public Use Microdata Sample, the Office of Innovation examines how the intersection of these factors contributes to Rochester's poverty landscape. Key findings outlined in this report include: • Many part-time and seasonal workers live in poverty or are not self sufficient. • Minorities are over-represented in several key service industries. • The industries with over-representation of minorities also tend to be the county’s lowest paying and largest sectors. • Minorities earn less than their white counterparts in nearly every industry sector. • Regardless of educational attainment, the wage gap between whites and minorities persists. The report concludes that wages play a key role in preventing minorities, women, and the disabled from achieving self-sufficiency in Rochester. The recommended next steps for RMAPI are to engage employers and lawmakers in the industry sectors where minorities are both underpaid and over-representated and work towards increasing wages to help meet the goal of increasing self-sufficiency and reducing poverty in Rochester by 50% over the next 15 years. Data Source: 2015 Census American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Public Microdata Sample Data and documentation can be accessed here: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data/pums.html