Wage premiums for education and location of South African workers, by gender and race

Despite the fact that the quality of education for Africans in South Africa was lower than that for whites, in 1993 the percentage wage gains associat ed with additional years of primary, secondary, and higher education were s ubstantially higher for Africans than for whites. These rates increased at higher levels of education for both race groups. The lower quantity (or pol itical quotas) of education received by Africans than by whites is a simple explanation for the wage structure documented in this article. The other t wo racial groups, colored (mixed races) and Indians, occupy intermediate po sitions between whites and Africans in terms of both the quantity of educat ion received and wage returns to those levels of education. As barriers to employment by race are dismantled in South Africa, wage differences between races are likely to diminish, while wage differences within race groups ma y well widen. Quantitative expansion of educational opportunities for nonwh ites at the secondary and higher education levels seems to be overdue.