By Ken Alltucker
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The paychecks of black Ohioans shrank during the prosperous 1990s, a decade in which white workers had modest wage gains, a new report released today shows.

Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based think tank, said the typical black worker in Ohio earned a median wage of $10.91 an hour in 2001, a 2.1 percent decline from 1989 when adjusted for inflation. But hourly wages for white workers inched up 3.8 percent to $13.17 over the same time period.

The wage gap between blacks and whites narrows some, but not entirely, when similar education levels are compared. For example, white high school graduates earn $2 more an hour ($12) than black high school graduates ($10).

The report is largely based on an annual Census Bureau survey of 50,000 households nationwide. It doesn't have any information for Cincinnati or other Ohio cities, nor does it include data on other races.

Amy Hanauer, executive director of Policy Matters, said the decline of Ohio's smokestack economy and its largest cities are two of the main factors that account for the wage difference.

"It Ohio, it's really a story of the manufacturing job loss," she said.

Ohio was one of the best states for black workers more than two decades ago. The typical Ohio black man's wage in 1979 was $15.32 an hour, 30 percent more than the U.S. median wage for black men. The median wage for African-American men in Ohio has since plummeted 21.7 percent to $12 an hour.

The figures aren't a surprise to Jim Clingman, former president of the African-American Chamber of Commerce in Cincinnati.

He said the wage disparity - as well as other issues such as police-community relations and discrimination - could persuade some young educated African-American workers to seek employment elsewhere.

"A lot of young people would be more inclined to leave (Cincinnati) because of that," Mr. Clingman said. "They may want to go somewhere to get top dollar for their education and skills."

The report also claims that:

Black workers (28.8 percent) were more likely than white workers (21.9 percent) to earn a poverty wage of $8.63 an hour or less. Yet poverty wages among both black and white workers have risen since 1979 levels.

African-Americans with a four-year degree earned a median wage of $16 an hour in 2001, or $4 less than their white counterparts. Yet among the least educated, race is less of a factor for earning potential. Black high school dropouts earned $8.32 an hour versus $8.30 an hour for white high school dropouts.

E-mail kalltucker@enquirer.com