Occupational segregation creates white jobs and black jobs that tax policy treats unequally

Evidence

The occupational segregation that defines the labor market works both within companies and across industries. So not only do qualified black workers often earn less than their white peers—giving them less income to put into a retirement account—but they are less likely to have access to a retirement account or health benefits at all. Occupational segregation constrains black wealth building by creating “white” jobs and “black” jobs, and tax policy does not treat those jobs the same way. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 353

Categorization

• DEFINE: ‘Occupational segregation’ is the key concept — defining it as creating white jobs and black jobs, taxed differently, is the argument’s engine.
• XREF: connects to: Racial segregation operates as rent-seeking that impoverishes black workers — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 401; White workers cemented segregation to protect their labor advantages — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1459