Wj. Carrington et al., BLACK-WHITE WAGE CONVERGENCE - THE ROLE OF PUBLIC-SECTOR WAGES AND EMPLOYMENT, Industrial & labor relations review, 49(3), 1996, pp. 456-471
This paper assesses the relative contribution of the public and privat
e sectors, through their employment and wages, to the black/white wage
convergence that occurred in the U.S. economy over the 1963-92 period
. Applying standard decomposition methods to Current Population Survey
data, the authors show that almost ail the convergence in black/white
relative wages in the 1963-75 period was due to black/white convergen
ce in the private sector. Similarly, the post-1975 slowdown in black/w
hite wage convergence was almost completely due to a corresponding slo
wdown in the private sector. The unimportance of the public sector, th
e authors argue, arises for two reasons: the public sector never accou
nted for more than 20% of civilian employment over the 1963-92 period;
and blacks' historic success in that sector left relatively little ro
om for further wage gains there, whereas in the private sector blacks
had considerable ground to make up.