Wages, Race, Skills and Space: Lessons from Employers in Detroit's Auto Industry: Lessons from Employers in Detroit's Auto Industry (Contemporary Urban Affairs) PDF
Preview Wages, Race, Skills and Space: Lessons from Employers in Detroit's Auto Industry: Lessons from Employers in Detroit's Auto Industry (Contemporary Urban Affairs)
WAGES, RACE, SKILLS AND SPACE CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS VOLUME 5 GARLAND REFERENCE LIBRARY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE VOLUME II70 CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS RICHARD D.BINGHAM, Series Editor LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY The United States and Canada by Laura A.Reese BEYOND EDGE CITIES by Richard D.Bingham, William M.Bowen, Yosra A.Amara, Lynn W.Bachelor, Jane Dockery, Jack Dustin, Deborah Kimble, Thomas Maraffa, David L.McKee, Kent P.Schwirian, Gail Gordon Sommers, Howard A.Stafford NEIGHBORHOODS, FAMILY, AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOR IN URBAN AMERICA by Yvette M.Alex-Assensoh GOVERNING METROPOLITAN AREAS Response to Growth and Change by David K.Hamilton THE COLLABORATIVE CITY Opportunities and Struggles for Black and Latinos in U.S. Cities edited by John J.Betancur and Douglas C.Gills THE ART OF REVITALIZATION Improving Conditions in Distressed Inner- City Neighborhoods by John W.Zielenbach WAGES, RACE, SKILLS AND SPACE Lessons from Employers in Detroit’s Auto Industry by Susan Turner Meiklejohn MINORITY POLITICS AT THE MILLENNIUM edited by Richard A.Keiser and Katherine Underwood WAGES, RACE, SKILLS AND SPACE LESSONS FROM EMPLOYERS IN DETROIT’S AUTO INDUSTRY SUSAN TURNER MEIKLEJOHN The Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University GARLAND PUBLISHING, INC. A MEMBER OF THE TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP NEW YORK & LONDON 2000 Published in 2000 by Garland Publishing, Inc. A member of the Taylor & Francis Group 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Copyright © 2000 by Susan Turner Meiklejohn All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Meiklejohn, Susan Turner. Wages, race, skills and space: lessons from employers in Detroit’s auto industry/Susan Turner Meiklejohn. p. cm—(Garland reference library of social sciences; v. 1170. Contemporary urban affairs; v. 5) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8153-2844-3 (alk. paper) 1. Discrimination in employment—Michigan—Detroit. 2. Afro-American automobile industry workers—Michigan—Detroit. I. Title. II. Garland reference library of social science; v. 1170. III. Garland reference library of social science. Contemporary urban affiars; v. 5. HD4903.3.A82 U65 2000 331.6'396073077434–dc21 99–051638 ISBN 0-203-01155-4 Master e-book ISBN For my guys Alec Meiklejohn and Emile Haynie who bring me such comfort and joy Contents Series Editor’s Foreword vii Acknowledgments viii List of Tables ix Introduction x CHAPTER 1 Study Rationale and Methodology 1 CHAPTER 2 Racial Segregation in the Detroit Metropolitan 15 Area: A Long-Lived and Persistent Phenomenon CHAPTER 3 Employer Location Decisions: Detroit’s Image 21 and Actuality CHAPTER 4 Examining Wage Differences Between Black- 35 and White-owned Firms CHAPTER 5 Wages and Space 51 CHAPTER 6 Race and Skills: The Role of Perceived Skill 91 Differences in the Lower Wages of African- American Workers CHAPTER 7 The Persistence of Discrimination and Policy 141 Recommendations Appendix A. Sample Job Wages and Benefits 149 Appendix B. Perceived Skill Differences Between Black and 153 White and City and Suburban Workers Appendix C. Sample Job and Worker Skill Characteristics 161 Bibliography 169 Index 179 Series Editor’s Foreword Susan Turner Meiklejohn’s Wages, Race, Skills and Space: Lessons from Employers in Detroit’s Auto Industry is an important study of wage and employment differences between blacks and whites in an urban economy. The book presents the results of a Detroit-based research endeavor which sought to understand the role of employer practices, geography, job skills, and the characteristics of workers in explaining economic disparities between black and white workers. In this qualitative study, Meiklejohn designed a case-match format to be able to compare 13 black-owned firms and 13 white-owned firms. Firms were matched by technology used, location, size, and product produced. She conducted 52 interviews at these firms. The length of the interviews ranged from one to five hours with a mean of 90 minutes. Interviews were conducted with CEOs and with floor supervisors who had day-to-day contact with entry-level workers. Meiklejohn finds that black employers are more likely to hire black workers, but both black and white employers with largely black workforces pay significantly lower wages than employers with largely white workforces. She also finds what appears to be discriminatory hiring practices in largely white suburban firms and harassment of black workers in the suburbs. However, the labor-force problems of blacks are complex. For example, it is extremely difficult for urban residents without cars to adequately search for higher-paying jobs in the suburbs— especially when employers recruit by posting signs in their windows or by word of mouth. Meiklejohn concludes with policy recommendations to reduce hiring discrimination. Richard D.Bingham Acknowledgments Sheldon Danziger provided detailed and helpful comments to an earlier version of this book. John Nystuen, Mary Corcoran, and Reynolds Farley also provided excellent feedback on my first draft. Harry Holzer and Chris Tilly shared early versions of their work with me and they, along with Sanders Korenman, very much aided my understanding of the issues I address here. Information from chapters 4 and 5 was previously published in a different form as “Barriers to a Better Break: Employer Discrimination and Spatial Mismatch in Metropolitan Detroit.” Journal of Urban Affairs 19, 2:123–141. List of Tables Table 1–1 Firm Profiles 7 Table 1–2 Respondent Profiles 10 Table 4–1 Average Wages by Race of Employer and Employer 41 Location Table A–1 Sample Job Wages and Benefits 149 Table B–1 Perceived Skill Differences 153 Table C–1 Sample Job and Worker Skill Characteristics 161
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