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Race and Gender Inequality

Introduction

Stratification in sociology refers to the society’s categorization of its people into groups based on social and economic factors such as wealth, income, occupation, education, race, gender, and social status (Herring, Cedric, and Anthony, p1). The United States is composed of a diverse society, and this is due to the fact that America is made of people from different races, such as blacks and whites. Among the various races in America, there has been inequality in terms of wages, and this has contributed to the differences in wealth acquisition, with some of the races and gender earning more than the other leading to a difference in social stratification.

Income Differences between various racial groups in the United States

Racial inequalities in the United States have been a chronic problem, and this has continued to affect and even manifest in the race-based gaps in different economic indicators in regard to the wealth divide, and income inequality in the United States. According to statistics, in the middle 21st century, the United States will be a majority-minority nation, and this has been contributed to the increasing wealth divide between the white households and those of people of color. According to data obtained from the Racial Wealth Divide Report, the median Black family with over 3,500 dollars owns just 2% of the wealth of the nearly 147,000 dollars the median of what the white household owns. In contrast, the middle Latino family owns more than 6,500 dollars, which is a representation of 4% of the median wealth of the white family. Over, the median white family owns more than 41 times in regards to the wealth owned by the median black family, and more than 22 times the wealth of the median Latino family in the United States (Wolff).

In regard to income inequality, there has been a significant difference in what black people ear in comparison to the whites. According to reports obtained from the Fortune 500 CEOs who earned approximately 14.5 million dollars on average, there were only four blacks and 10 Latinos, and all this attribute to less than 3% of the total income. It is worth noting that these groups made 44.1% of the United States workers who benefit from the raised federal minimum wage that is now 15 dollars per hour. Blacks and Latinos make up to 31.1% of the United States population. According to data obtained from Pew Research, White families make into the top 10% earners in the racial group as they only need to have an annual income of 117,986 dollars, which is nearly twice as much as the threshold for the black families.

Income differences between men and women in the United States

There exist differences in wage groups among the genders, as according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the largest gaps between men and women are seen to appear among the Whites and the Asians. However, black Latinos are also affected, but they enjoy some economic equity between men and women. Student loans have continued to be a burden to many across the racial divides, and they are especially a huge burden to the black and Latino students. Women comprise more than 56% of the college student population, and this means that they hold more than two-thirds of outstanding student loans. Black women graduate with a student loan of about 30,000 dollars compared to whites with 22,000 dollars of white women (Kijakazi et al.). Men students have lesser debts attributing to 19,500 dollars. As a result of this, most women are subjected to a higher wage cut compared to men, ending up on meager salaries.

Conclusion

The issue of income and wealth inequality in the United States has continued to be a major concern. The gap between the poor and the rich has continued to widen, with more and more whites becoming richer while people of color continue to make ends meet. Despite this, the gap between males and females in regard to income has also continued to increase, with men earning higher than women, and this is attributed to the high students’ loan burden.

Works Cited

Herring, Cedric, and Anthony Hynes. “Race, skin tone, and wealth inequality in America.” Color Struck. Brill Sense, 2017. 1-17.

Kijakazi, Kilolo, et al. “The color of wealth in the nation’s capital.” Durham, NC: Duke University (2016).

Wolff, Edward N. Household Wealth Trends in the United States, 1962 to 2016: Has Middle Class Wealth Recovered?. No. w24085. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017.