A new report from the Insight Center for Community Economic Development highlights one big reason that just addressing wage gaps — be they gender- or race-based — won’t necessarily change the disproportionate number of African-Americans who find themselves mired in generational poverty: the wealth gap. Measured as assets less debts, families of color have 16 cents of wealth for every dollar white families have. And single women of color have it worst of all.
- Single black and Hispanic women have a median wealth of $100 and $120 respectively; the median for single white women is $41,500.
- Nearly half of all single black and Hispanic women have zero or negative wealth, the latter of which occurs when debts exceed assets.
- About one-third of single Hispanic women and one-fourth of single black women have no checking or savings account.
- On reservations where unemployment rates can be as high as 70 percent, Native American women are hard pressed to fulfill “job search” requirements to qualify for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
- While 57 percent of single white women own homes, only 33 percent of single black women and 28 percent of single Hispanic women are homeowners.
- Only 1 percent of single Hispanic women and 4 percent of single black women own business assets compared to 8 percent of single white women.
- While 66 percent of white men and 60.4 percent of white women receive retirement income from assets, the same is true for only 40 percent of Asian women, 25.4 percent of black women and 23 percent of Hispanic women.
Add that to the fact that single women with children saw their unemployment rise 68 percent since the start of the recession, that African-Americans as a group continue to to face disproportionately high unemployment rates and that the stimulus isn’t helping many African-Americans, and what you have is a group of women who face disproportionate barriers to employment access and have disproportionately little in the way of a personal financial safety net. If you can’t take time off of work (if you can find work) to go to school, or you don’t have the money for training while unemployed, then it is difficult to better your situation — and difficult to better the situation of your children as they grow up and enter the labor market themselves.