July 5th 2023.
A recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has shed light on the lack of wage increases for Black workers after the COVID-19 pandemic. The report noted that in 2022, Black men made 77 cents, and Black women made 68 cents for every dollar a white man made. This gap has grown since the pandemic started.
Sheila Block, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and co-author of the report, told The Star, “The pandemic recovery has been uneven, and while wages are up, racialized men and women and Black men and women still don’t make their fair share.”
Moreover, the report's authors identified racialized workers as those who are “non-Caucasian in race or non-white in color [sic]”. It further revealed that Black workers are mostly concentrated in low-paying industries like food service and retail, with 60% of Black workers employed in low-wage positions compared to 48% of whites. Racialized workers make up 52% of lower-wage jobs.
Additionally, the report highlighted the rate of unemployment in Canada by racial groups. Blacks fared worse in this category. The Star reported that the percentage points for unemployed Blacks decreased by 1.6, whereas white and racialized groups saw more significant improvements, with the unemployment rate for racialized groups dropping by 2.9 and 2.1 for whites.
Grace-Edward Galabuzi, a professor and co-author of the report, acknowledged the structural barriers impacting Black workers. Galabuzi told The Star, “There’s a structural problem here that starts with our education system.”
The same struggles are also experienced by Blacks in the U.S. In 2022, Black Enterprise reported that Black women in the U.S. suffered the most from recent increases in unemployment. Moreover, wages in the restaurant industry were insufficient to meet their respective state minimum wages. The amount accounted for tips and gratuities.
The findings of this report have been eye-opening and have highlighted the systemic issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve wage parity and employment equality. It's clear that there is much work to be done to ensure that Black workers are able to access the same economic opportunities as their white counterparts.
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