Owning a home, then equal pay for equal work, and then having a college degree are the three factors that can make the biggest difference in closing the racial wealth gap, which is how non-whites in America are vastly less wealthy than most whites.
If blacks and Latinos owned homes as widely as whites, then median black household wealth would grow by $32,113, and median Latino wealth would grow by $29,213, a new study by Demos, a progressive think tank, and the Institute for Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University has found.
Similarly, if non-whites were paid the same as whites, they would yield another $11,488 for blacks and $3,528 for Latinos, the groups reported. In contrast, graduating college would only yield $1,313 more for blacks and $3,528 for Latinos, they said.
These figures begin to shed light on how economic class divides endure over time.
