Further Analysis of the Employment and Personnel Practices of the Durham City Government

摘要

This study is a followup to a 1976 statistical study in Durham, N.C., depicting white males as having unusual success in increasing their wages. The city's employee history file was used in the followup study, which covered the period from early 1969 through the end of 1976 for all persons employed by the city as of the end of 1976, or who had terminated their employment within the preceding 18 months. The file recorded the average end of 1976 salaries of employees of that date who were hired by the city prior to the end of 1969, broken down by race and sex and by job classification, pay range, and pay step. It was thus possible to compare the average 1976 salary of blacks to that of nonblacks for a group of people all of whom occupied similar positions as of the end of 1969. It was shown that the relative disparities between blacks as a group, who tend to advance slowly from low - paying jobs, though at a normal rate from others, and white males, who have had unusual success in increasing their wages, are apparently attributable in large part to imbalances in the racial distribution of employees across jobs as of the end of 1969, and to no significant extent to disparate rates of wage advancement since then among persons grouped by the jobs they held at that time. Questions remain as to whether or not the racial composition by job or employees was appropriate for that time and whether or not it was appropriate that the jobs held predominantly by nonblacks tended to be those with superior wage advancement possibilities. It was also shown that there is some evidence that black males have tended to advance more slowly than similarly - situated nonblack males, suggesting a need for further studies on disparity in advancement opportunities for black males. Further analyses of the Durham city government personnel practices are included. Supportive tabular information, personnel history files, and a description of job classifications in the analysis are provided.