第14章労働市場と所得

Gary Becker (1930–2014), who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1992, was one of the first to analyze discrimination in economic terms. Becker pointed out that while competitive markets can allow some employers to practice discrimination, it can also provide profit-seeking firms with incentives not to discriminate. Given these incentives, Becker explored the question of why discrimination persists.

If a business is located in an area with a large minority population and refuses to sell to minorities, it will cut into its own profits. If some businesses run by bigoted employers refuse to pay women and/or minorities a wage based on their productivity, then other profit-seeking employers can hire these workers. In a competitive market, if the business owners care more about the color of money than about the color of skin, they will have an incentive to make buying, selling, hiring, and promotion decisions strictly based on economic factors.

Do not underestimate the power of markets to offer at least a degree of freedom to oppressed groups. In many countries, cohesive minority population groups like Jewish people and emigrant Chinese people have managed to carve out a space for themselves through their economic activities, despite legal and social discrimination against them. Many immigrants, including those who come to the United States, have taken advantage of economic freedom to make new lives for themselves. However, history teaches that market forces alone are unlikely to eliminate discrimination. After all, discrimination against African Americans persisted in the market-oriented U.S. economy during the century between the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in 1865, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—and has continued since then, too.

Why does discrimination persist in competitive markets? Gary Becker sought to explain this persistence. Discriminatory impulses can emerge at a number of levels: among managers, among workers, and among customers. Consider the situation of a store owner or manager who is not personally prejudiced, but who has many customers who are prejudiced. If that manager treats all groups fairly, the manager may find it drives away prejudiced customers. In such a situation, a policy of nondiscrimination could reduce the firm’s profits. After all, a business firm is part of society, and a firm that does not follow the societal norms is likely to suffer.

As economist William A. Darity Jr. points out, however, the "prejudiced customer" rationale falls apart when considering the many jobs that have no customer contact. Darity examined several theories regarding the persistence of employment discrimination, including rationales regarding group membership and employers' lack of information about candidates of other genders or races. Darity also directly studies and interprets others' work on discrimination in other countries, such as wage disparities between Sikh and Hindu men in India. Darity concludes that the competitive forces of the market have not been enough to overcome employment and wage discrimination, and, on their own, are unlikely to end such discrimination in the future.

A first public policy step against discrimination in the labor market is to make it illegal. For example, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 said that employers must pay men and women who do equal work the same. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 prohibited discrimination on the basis of age against individuals who are 40 years of age or older. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 was aimed at prohibiting discrimination against people in the workplace who are planning pregnancy, are pregnant, or are returning after pregnancy. Passing a law, however, is only part of the answer, since discrimination by prejudiced employers may be less important than broader social patterns and systems.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act created an important government organization, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to investigate employment discrimination and protect workers who filed complaints against employers. Economist Phyllis Ann Wallace, who had previously worked for U.S. intelligence services, was appointed as the commission's chief of technical studies. In this role she collected and organized a massive amount of public and private sector data, as well as mentored and directed economists and other analysts in their investigations.

These laws against discrimination have reduced the gender wage gap. A 2007 Department of Labor study compared salaries of men and women who have similar educational achievement, work experience, and occupation and found that the gender wage gap is only 5%.

In the case of the earnings gap between Black people and White people (and also between Hispanic people and White people), probably the single largest step that could be taken at this point in U.S. history to close the earnings gap would be to reduce the gap in educational attainment. Part of the answer to this issue involves finding ways to improve the performance of schools, which is a highly controversial topic in itself. In addition, the education gap is unlikely to close unless Black and Hispanic families and peer groups strengthen their culture of support for educational attainment.

Affirmative action is the name given to active efforts by government or businesses that give special rights to minorities in hiring and promotion to make up for past discrimination. Affirmative action, in its limited and not especially controversial form, means making an effort to reach out to a broader range of minority candidates for jobs. In its more aggressive and controversial form, affirmative action required government and companies to hire a specific number or percentage of minority employees. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against state affirmative action laws. Today, the government applies affirmative action policies only to federal contractors who have lost a discrimination lawsuit. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces this type of redress.