ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the extent and causes of sex, race, and ethnic inequality in the workplace. The last third of twentieth century witnessed revolutionary reductions in sex and race inequality in the workplace. Women’s concentration in low-paying service jobs has insulated them from the big pay cuts that some men experienced as the United States lost well-paying manufacturing jobs. Job segregation is a key mechanism in workplace inequality. Job segregation is the linchpin in workplace inequality because the relegation of different groups to different kinds of work both facilitates and legitimates unequal treatment. Minorities’ and women’s relegation to deadend or short-ladder jobs is critical for hierarchical segregation. Supply-side explanations for sex segregation tend to stress the first step in this process—work preferences, whereas supply-side explanations for race segregation emphasize the second step—obtaining qualifications.
