Double disadvantage of Black, Hispanic, and Asian American women in earnings, revisited

Prior literature suggests that women of color experience unique disadvantages as women and as racial minorities. However, empirical studies that hypothesize an additional disadvantage for women of color in personal earnings have not found supporting evidence. This study explores the family contexts and the local labor market conditions by which double disadvantage is mitigated. Using the 2015–2019 American Community Survey, we uncover a paradoxical pattern that the stronger the power of race in accounting for earnings inequality among men in a local labor market, the weaker double disadvantage married women of color experience. The relative performances of women of color compared to White women in terms of personal earnings, annual work hours, and hourly earnings are positively associated with the strength of race in explaining earnings inequality among men across local labor markets. No such paradoxical patterns are persistently evident among cohabiting or single women. The implications of these findings are discussed.