Black workers make hardship withdrawals five times more often than whites

Evidence

Ursula McCandless, a human resources manager at Atlanta’s Cox Enterprises, who we first met in the introduction, has an MBA, earns about $175,000 annually, and contributes regularly to her 401(k) plan. Her lifetime wealth-building potential should be excellent, from a tax perspective, but the reality of her life as a black worker reduces her opportunities: Ursula supports other family members and has withdrawn from her retirement account to pay off credit card debt. She’s not alone; black workers are five times more likely to make hardship withdrawals than their white peers (8.8 percent versus 1.7 percent). — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 397

Categorization

• SHARE: The 8.8 versus 1.7 percent hardship withdrawal stat, and the high-earning black MBA case, are concrete evidence usable in the tax-disparity argument.