The Continuing Racial and Ethnic Income Gap in New York and the Nation

Race has been a defining aspect of American society since Europeans came to this continent. Although racial identification reflects where people’s ancestors lived, not biological differences between people, it gained a connotation of superiority or inferiority as a justification for actions by dominant settlers of European descent to subjugate non-Europeans for economic benefit. One consequence […]

The Economic Value of College Depends upon Where You Live

College graduates enjoy a substantial income premium over those with a high school degree. In New York State, the median income in 2019 for people aged 25 or older with a Bachelor’s degree was $62,699. The median income for high school graduates was only $33,491. For those with advanced degrees, the median was $81,041. But […]

With a New Governor, New York Faces Economic Challenges

For decades, New York has had substantial disparities in economic performance. Although some parts of the State are doing relatively well, much of it has declining employment, higher levels of poverty, lower household income levels, and fewer adults working than the nation. Over most of the past decade, job growth was limited to Eastern New […]

Poverty in Upstate Metropolitan Areas: Myths and Realities

We live in an era in which long-held attitudes about race have been heightened by political campaigns that attempt to mobilize fears among white voters about minority group members and immigrants. These appeals have ranged from claims that President Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya and claims that criminal undocumented immigrants endanger […]

Covid-19: The Cost in Lost Jobs

With more than 190,000 lives lost and millions infected, Covid-19 has imposed a tragic toll on residents of the United States. New York State was hit hard early on, and has lost 32,600 residents to the disease as of early September But strong controls that shut down much of the state’s economy for weeks during […]

Income Inequality in Metropolitan Areas

In many respects, the American economy has done extraordinarily well since the great recession of 2008. We have seen a long period of growth in employment, while unemployment has dropped to levels not seen in many decades. But this period has also seen a troubling increase in income polarization, which has left typical workers with […]

The Income Gap between Men and Women: 2015 vs. 1970

Since 1970, inflation adjusted wage income growth has been almost nonexistent – only five percent over the 45 year period ending in 2015. Income change in metropolitan areas in New York State has differed little from the nation. Rochester and Buffalo were two exceptions – both had lower median real wage incomes in 2015 than in […]

The Persistent Gap Between White and Black Incomes in New York

There has long been a substantial gap between the incomes of white Americans and those who describe themselves as African/American or black. As early as 1964, with the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, the Federal and state Governments began passing laws aimed at preventing discrimination in the workplace. Has New York seen significant progress in reducing wage […]

Education, Age and Declines in Real Income Since 1970

The economic malaise that has affected small and medium sized rust belt cities since 2000 has been widely noted. Most have seen little or no real household income growth since then. Much of the weak performance has been associated with the long-term decline of manufacturing employment in the region – a trend that is largely […]

Poverty in Upstate Metropolitan Areas – Characteristics and Change: 1999-2013

This is a paper based partly on data previously presented on this blog site. This paper examines the incidence of poverty in upstate New York cities compared to the surrounding suburbs. The data shows that while residents of upstate suburbs enjoy incomes that are substantially higher than the national average and poverty rates that are […]