Mobilizing social resources: Race, ethnic, and gender differences in social capital and persisting wage inequalities

Drawing on a social capital theoretical framework, I examine race, ethnic, and gender wage inequalities. Specifically, I extend past research by analy zing differences in the mobilization of different types of job contacts, wh at these types of contacts and their level of influence "buy" job seekers i n the labor market, and the extent to which differences in social resources explain between-group variations in wages. Four aspects of job contacts ar e implicated: the race and gender of the job contact, the strength of the r elationship between the job seeker and the job contact, and the job contact 's influence. Employing the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, I find th at white men are more likely to mobilize weak, white, male, and influential contacts, those contacts hypothesized to positively impact employment outc omes. Moreover, their greater mobilization of male and influential ties hel ps to explain a substantial part of their wage advantage over white women a nd Latinos. However, in many ways, their overall social resource advantage seems somewhat overstated. They reap no advantages over blacks, Latinos, an d white women in their use of weak and white ties. Furthermore, results ind icate that the benefits of social resources appear largely contingent on th e social structural location of job seekers mobilizing them, less on any be nefits inherent in different "types" of job contacts.