Wages, Race, Skills and Space: Lessons from Employers in Detroit's Auto Industry: Lessons from Employers in Detroit's Auto Industry (Contemporary Urban Affairs)

198 Pages·2000·4.87 MB·English

by  Turner Meiklejo

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