Conventional wisdom dictates that the key to a better quality, higher-paying job is more education. Generally, this hypothesis holds true—those who go to college make more than those who don't, and those who earn graduate degrees tend to have the highest wages. But looking closer, a different picture emerges. When broken out by race and gender—even after decades of increased educational attainment by people of color—job-quality disparities remain.
Consider electricians versus food and beverage service workers. Even just reading the occupation names, a preexisting bias of one requiring more education than the other probably bubbles up. Except both occupations have equivalent distributions of educational attainment: a high school credential at the 20th percentile and some college credits at the 80th percentile.
Despite requiring the same level of education, electricians make roughly double the median income of food and beverage workers. But wages aren't the only indicator of job quality. If we factor in a selection of 10 other indicators, such as health insurance and regular scheduling, electricians have a job-quality score of 7 compared with food and beverage workers' score of 3.
Job Quality Indicators
However, when breaking down the occupations by race and gender, we can see clear delineations of who works in which jobs. This over- or underrepresentation of race and gender groups in occupations despite similar levels of education—and taking into account what the role requires—is called occupational crowding. To measure its prevalence across occupations, we used a three-tiered crowding index.
Proportional crowding indicates that the share of educational attainment required for an occupation among a race and gender group roughly mirrors the share of workers in that occupation.
Crowded in indicates that the share of workers in an occupation is higher than the share that have the required education.
Crowded out indicates that the share of workers in an occupation is lower than the share that have the required education.
If we compare electricians and food and beverage workers using these categories, we see that among the share of people who hold the requisite education, white men are overrepresented among electricians and underrepresented among food and beverage workers. For white, Black, and Latina women, the opposite is true.
Occupational Crowding Shows Disparities in Who Works in Quality Jobs
By looking at all occupations across a specific race and gender group, we can see how occupational crowding plays out across the workforce. Black women, for instance, tend to be crowded in to lower-quality jobs and crowded out of higher-quality jobs. Discrimination because of racism and sexism, which can occur during the hiring or promotion process, explains many of these disparities.
The average median salary for Black women among occupations that they are crowded in to is $31,899, and the average for the occupations they are crowded out of is $42,589. But other factors also affect these quality scores, as Black women are more likely to be in occupations without health insurance, without union access, and with irregular schedules.
To illustrate the extent to which Black women are crowded in to or out of high-quality positions, we have sorted 108 occupations by their crowding categorization and job-quality index.
For the crowding characterization, we divide the actual share of Black women in a job compared with white men by the expected share of Black women compared with white men based on the occupation’s necessary educational attainment. Proportional representation falls between 0.9 and 1.1, while anything below 0.9 indicates a group is crowded out and anything above 1.1 indicates a group is crowded in.
For job quality, we measure the 11 job-quality variables as above or below average for each occupation, creating an overall score on a scale of 1 to 11. Occupations with a score of 1 to 5 are considered below average, whereas occupations with a score of 6 to 11 are considered above average. No occupation has a quality score of 11.
Using our electrician example, roughly 5,000 Black women work as electricians despite nearly 4.5 million having at least a high school credential but no more than some college credits. Meanwhile, almost 1.2 million white men work as electricians with just over 20 million having the same educational parameters. As a result, we find that Black women are dramatically crowded out of the high-quality occupation. They also are paid less as an electrician, earning just 67.5 percent of the median electrician's wages.
Food and beverage work, alternatively, falls on the left-hand side of the innermost circle, meaning Black women are crowded in to this low-quality job. When they are in these roles, Black women earn $15,700.
By comparing occupational crowding and job quality, we can see how workforce discrimination can create inequities unsolvable by higher educational achievement. Below, we've mapped occupational crowding for Black, Latinx, and white men and women along with 11 indicators of job quality. Use these charts to explore how workers are crowded in to or out of high-quality jobs.
Compare the Representation of Race and Gender Groups across Occupations
Electricians
(All Workers) $48,210
Black men
| Crowded out | 35.4% |
| Proportional | 10.4% |
| Crowded in | 54.2% |
| Crowded out | 70.0% |
| Proportional | 6.7% |
| Crowded in | 23.3% |
Black women
| Crowded out | 41.9% |
| Proportional | 2.3% |
| Crowded in | 55.8% |
| Crowded out | 71.2% |
| Proportional | 8.5% |
| Crowded in | 20.3% |
Latinx men
| Crowded out | 16.7% |
| Proportional | 22.9% |
| Crowded in | 60.4% |
| Crowded out | 51.7% |
| Proportional | 33.3% |
| Crowded in | 15.0% |
Latinx women
| Crowded out | 37.0% |
| Proportional | 10.9% |
| Crowded in | 52.2% |
| Crowded out | 69.0% |
| Proportional | 8.6% |
| Crowded in | 22.4% |
White men
| Crowded out | 52.1% |
| Proportional | 10.4% |
| Crowded in | 37.5% |
| Crowded out | 21.7% |
| Proportional | 18.3% |
| Crowded in | 60.0% |
White women
| Crowded out | 41.7% |
| Proportional | 14.6% |
| Crowded in | 43.8% |
| Crowded out | 63.3% |
| Proportional | 13.3% |
| Crowded in | 23.3% |