Study: State economy shows wide inequity
Adding one more log into a bonfire of evidence about racial inequity in Wisconsin, the state’s economy ranked last in racial equality among all 50 U.S. states, according to a new study of wealth and employment gaps between Black and white residents.
Only the District of Columbia ranking lower.
WalletHub — a personal finance website based in Washington, D.C. — assessed state-by-state disparities between white and Black residents using several measures of wealth and employment. These metrics included gaps in median annual household income, unemployment rate, labor force participation rate, homeownership rate, poverty rate, homeless rate, share of executives and share of unsheltered homeless. It used the most recently available data from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,
Jill Gonzalez, an analyst for WalletHub, said in an email to the Journal Sentinel that the analysis was conducted to “shed further light on discrepancies between whites and Blacks to support learning during this time of national unrest and the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Among the 50 states — again, not counting the District of Columbia — Wisconsin had the highest disparities between its Black and white residents in both median annual household income and labor force participation rate. WalletHub calculated a 107% racial income gap for the state, meaning that the median yearly income for a white household in Wisconsin is more than double that of a Black household.
WalletHub’s analysis also indicated that Wisconsin has the second-highest poverty rate gap in the country — a 23% difference between white and Black Wisconsinites — with only Maine’s being larger.
In terms of unemployment rate, Wisconsin’s racial gap surpassed that of 47 other states. Wisconsin ranked 45th in terms of homeownership rate gap and 14th in the share of executives.
In two categories — the homeless rate gap and the share of sheltered homeless gap — Wisconsin tied for first with several other states. The white homeless and unsheltered homeless populations in Wisconsin actually exceeded the Black homeless and unsheltered homeless populations in the state, respectively. According to Gonzalez, this was true in 35 states in regard to the share of the homeless population, and 48 states in regard to the share of the unsheltered homeless population.
WalletHub produces an annual racial equity report, working with academic experts to make sure its methodology is sound, Gonzalez said. It “pooled and updated certain metrics” for the new report in order to “amplify the discrepancies between whites and Blacks seen at the economic level,” she added.