Morial said the SOBA Report Equality Index in years past has provided a single national measure of the financial disparities between Blacks and Whites and Hispanics and Whites. But this year the report includes for the first time rankings of 80 U.S. urban cities, from the most equal to the least equal on the income disparity scale.
The report said that Georgia’s Augusta-Richmond County area reported the smallest unemployment gap where 13.3 percent of Blacks are unemployed compared to 8.5 percent of whites. Morial said the largest jobless gap was discovered in Madison, Wisconsin, where 18.5 percent of Blacks are unemployed compared with 4.4 percent of whites.
The report also found that Minneapolis/ St. Paul showed one of the largest income gaps between Blacks and whites with Blacks earning $28,744 a year compared to $71, 376 for whites.
“In every city we looked at, there were income disparities,” Morial said.
The National Urban League is pushing for several economic measures, including an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016. Republicans vehemently oppose raising the minimum wage, saying it would cost too many jobs.
Meanwhile, Morial said he hopes the 2014 National Urban League report will serve as a rallying call for black America.
“We want people to be empowered by the information and use the information in their efforts to raise awareness for advocacy at the local levels,” Morial said.
(Photo: AP)
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ANALYSIS: Urban League Report Shows Blacks Losing Ground to Whites and Hispanics was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
