Black Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Market: An Earnings Analysis

This article investigates the existence and sources of earnings differentials between black Americans and black immigrants, and between black and nonblack immigrants. Employing the Public Use Sample of the 1980 census, the gross earnings differentials between black immigrants and black Americans are estimated to be 8.7 percent in favor of Americans (i.e., Americans earn 8.7 percent more than immigrants). About 2 percentage points and 6.7 percentage points of the gross differential are, respectively, due to differences in average characteristics and in returns to the characteristics. The gross differential between black and nonblack immigrants is 22.1 percent in favor of nonblack, of which 13.8 percentage points are due to differences in average characteristics and 8.3 are due to differences in returns to characteristics.