Note from BW of Brazil: Although this blog likes to share good news concerning the social plight of Afro-Brazilians (positive strides, the successful quota system, accomplishments, etc.), these stories are not meant to deny the huge social/racial inequalities that have existed for centuries and continue in current times. This current stat is simply more proof of this. It should be recognized that racial inequality in salary has decreased slightly in the past four years, as in February of 2009, white workers earned 102% more, or double the salary, of black workers. The latest figures show this inequality is slightly less than double but overall the results are the same: more than 125 years after the abolition of slavery, racial inequality remains a dominant force in Brazilian society.
by Agência Brasil and Luiza Calegari
Blacks earn, on average, just over half of whites, shows IBGE
Employment research by the IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística or Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) released on Thursday, January 30 showed that black workers earned less than whites, and women earned less than men in Brazil in 2013.
People defining themselves in terms of color as preto (black) or pardo (brown) (according to the official classification criteria of the IBGE) earned, on average, just over half (57.4%) of the income earned by white workers in the past year.
In value, this breaks down to an average salary of R$1,374.79 (US$567.72) for black workers, while for the average white worker it was R$2,396.74 (US$989.73).
Over the past decade, this inequality declined: since 2003, the wages of blacks rose on average 51.4%, while for whites it increased an average of 27.8%.
Women earn on average 73.6% of the salary of men
Regarding gender, women earn, on average, the equivalent to 73.6% of the average income received by men. In values, the average wage for women is R$1,614.95 (US$666.89) while for the men it came to R$ 2,195.30 (US$906.55).
Belo Horizonte (in Minas Gerais) is the city in which inequality is the more expressive. There, women earn, on average, only 68.1% of the wages earned by men. The Rio de Janeiro had the best rates: women receive 75.7% of the average wage of men.
In 2013, the unemployment rate remained higher for the preto and pardo population than for the branco (white) population. While the first group went from a rate of 14.7 % in 2003 to 6.4% in 2013, the second group went from 10.6% to 4.5% in the same period.
From 2012 to 2013, unemployment remained at the same value for pretos and pardos, and fell from 4.7% to 4.5% for brancos. Nevertheless, in the ten years, the decline was 8.3 percentage points for the preto and pardo population and 6.1 percentage points for the branco population.
The unemployment rate is also higher among women than among men, 6.6% versus 4.4%. In 2003, the rate for women was 15.2%, and for the men, 10.1%.
The highest unemployment rate is found among black women, for whom the rate reached 7.9% in 2013 and was 18.2 % in 2003. White women have the second highest at 5.4% and negros (preto and pardo men), 5.1%.
That of white men, that was 8.6 % in 2003, fell to 3.8% in 2013.
São Paulo (São Paulo) remains the metropolitan area with the highest average income of R$ 2,051.07 (US$847), followed by Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro) at R$2,049.07 (US$846.16), Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), R$1,892.83 (US$781.64), and by the Belo Horizonte from R$1,877.99 (US$775.52). Salvador (Bahia), at R$1,460.68 (US$603.19) and Recife (Pernambuco) with R$1,414.40 (US$584.08), have the lowest average values.
Source: Exame, UOL Economia, Estadão, Black Women of Brazil
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