Authors: William A. Darity, Jr., Darrick Hamilton, Samuel L. Myers Jr., Gregory N. Price, and Man Xu
Abstract: Racial differences in effort at work, if they exist, can potentially explain race-based wage/earnings disparities in the labor market. The authors estimate specifications of time spent on non-work activities at work by Black and White males and females with data from the American Time Use Survey. Estimates reveal that trivially small differences occur between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White males in time spent not working while on the job that disappear entirely when correcting for non-response errors. The findings imply that Black–White male differences in the fraction of the workday spent not working are either not large enough to partially explain the Black–White wage gap, or simply do not exist at all.
Key Findings
- The authors find small, statistically significant differences between unadjusted measures of time spent not working among non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White males.
- However, these differences disappear entirely when accounting for false and/or erroneous reporting when respondents claim they spent zero time at work not working.
- As such, any differences in time spent not working (during the workday) are too small to partially explain the racial wealth gap – or, conversely, these differences do not exist at all.
