Table 6 shows differences in mean earnings, by race and sex, in 2006 by the highest level of education completed.44 Among men, there are large differences in earnings at every level of education with the gap, especially for black men, widening as education increases. For example, black men with a master’s degree earn about $27,000 less than their white counterparts with the same level of education. Among women, a different pattern is evident. For women with a bachelor’s degree or less education, racial differences in earnings are nonexistent or small with some of them favoring African American women. In contrast, at the two highest education categories, both black and Hispanic women earn less than their white counterparts. Other data reveal that the small racial differences in individual earnings by education for women mask large differences in household income at every level of education for women.60 Moreover, racial differences in income understate the magnitude of racial disparities in economic status. There are large racial differences in wealth with African Americans having 9 cents and Hispanics 12 cents for every dollar of
