The median household income for Black Long Islanders has increased in the past decade as the unemployment and poverty rates for people of color have fallen regionwide, according to various reports, but one study found that if there were no wage or employment inequity, people of color would earn an average of $22,000 more a year.
Compared to white Long Islanders, Black and Latino residents earn less, even when they have the same level of education, said one report. Meanwhile, housing affordability, which affects people across racial and ethnic lines, “exacerbates existing inequities.”
“The poverty rate for Black and Latino residents is lower, health insurance rates across all racial and ethnic groups have gone up, and there are fewer disconnected youth than there were in 2014,” according to the 2024 report by the National Equity Atlas, titled “Long Island Equity Profile.” The report is an update of a 2017 report and was done in collaboration with the Urban League of Long Island, Citibank and the New York Community Trust — Long Island.
“Progress has been limited, particularly in terms of the racial income gap,” the study said.
The National Equity Atlas, a partnership of PolicyLink and the University of Southern California Equity Research Institute, concluded that Long Island’s economy in 2020 “could have been $25 billion stronger if its racial gaps in income had been closed. Put another way, achieving racial equity in income could boost the average annual income of people of color on Long Island by nearly $22,000 — a 48 percent increase.”
Edward Muña, project manager for the National Equity Atlas, based in Los Angeles at USC’s Equity Research Institute, told Newsday the Long Island GDP’s measurement is based on what it would “look like in a hypothetical society if we said if all the racial and ethnic groups essentially were making the same … And they are employed at the same rate as the non-Hispanic white folks for the area.”
The reality, he added, is much different.
“That $22,000 is reflective of a more unequal distribution. It’s reflective of different employment rates, and also reflective of different wages any one group has when compared to non-Hispanic white folks,” Muña said.
The report said that while nonwhites “are continuing to drive Long Island’s population growth,” income growth “has been uneven.” It added “workers of color are disproportionately underrepresented in future-ready jobs” and the “persistent shortage of affordable housing exacerbates existing inequities.”
Su Chen, board chair of the Urban League of Long Island, said in a recent conference call with Newsday and several board members that the report offered a “blueprint of what things we need to kind of look at and what needs to be improved on in our community.”
General data shows the average median household income for Black people in Nassau County topped an estimated $131,000 in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and $113,595 in Suffolk County. For Latinos, it was $122,020 in Nassau and $117,323 in Suffolk.
Other Urban League board members said the census statistics gloss over the challenges many lower-income Black residents and other minority residents face.
The median household income — the amount halfway between households that earn more and half that earn less — for whites and Asians was higher than for both Black and Latino Long Islanders — $144,456, for white people and $170,345 for Asians in Nassau, for example.
Phil Andrews, president of the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, when told of the median household income by county for Black people, said he doubted it would be that high in “Hempstead Village, Roosevelt, Uniondale,” where many people live “below a certain economic strata.”
For example, Hempstead Village’s median household income for the “Black alone” population was estimated at $74,408, according to the 2023 American Community Survey — $57,059 less than the median for Black people in Nassau.
And the village’s poverty rate for Black people was 14.5%, higher than the Nassau rate for Black residents at 8.4% in 2023. The Suffolk poverty rate for Black residents was 10.2%, according to the survey.
“While it looks like the average African American is doing well, there are large pockets of places where that’s not the case,” said Jude Massillon, vice chair of the Urban League of Long Island.
A comparison of home values in predominantly minority Wyandanch and a similar-sized part of Huntington with a predominantly white population provides another example of Long Island’s income gap, noted Travis Jackson of the Urban League. The mean value of homeowner occupied units in Wyandanch was $344,800, according to the 2019-23 American Community Survey. In the Huntington area used as comparison, the mean value was $733,000.
Isaiah Grigg, another Urban League board member, said people are “suffering,” unable to attain employment or jobs paying good wages.
“So why do these gaps persist?” Grigg asked rhetorically, “The ugly truth, so to speak, is as much progression that there is … a lot of Black and browns don’t have opportunity. That may be an unpopular opinion, but that’s still a reality.”
The New York State Department of Labor did an analysis of Black Long Islanders’ participation in the workforce, as part of Black History Month, finding improvements but also challenges.
The report by Shital Patel, a labor market analyst, Long Island Region, for the state Labor Department, showed there were 144,700 Black workers on Long Island, making up 9.5% of the Island’s total civilian labor force in 2023.
“That was up from 131,400 workers in 2010, or 8.8% of the region’s total labor force,” Patel wrote. “The increase of 13,300 Black workers on Long Island accounted for 39.4% of the region’s workforce gain in 2010-23.”
Patel’s report showed that Black Long Islanders participated in the labor force at a higher rate than non-Hispanic white people, and part of the difference was due to the younger average age of the Black population. The report also noted the Island’s overall unemployment rate has been below 4% since 2017, with the exception of the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, “and Black workers have benefited from the improvement in job opportunities. From 2010-2023, the unemployment rate for the Black population on Long Island more than halved, falling from 13.1% to 5.5%. However, the gap between Black and white unemployment has averaged 2.1 percentage points since 2017.” That gap remained in 2023, the report added, with the white population’s unemployment rate on Long Island at 3.4%.
“Research has identified a variety of factors causing these disparities, including racial discrimination and gaps in education, skills and professional experience,” Patel wrote. She added in her report: “In 2023, 35.0% of Black adults on Long Island had a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to nearly half (49.8%) of white adults.”
The median household income for Black Long Islanders has increased in the past decade as the unemployment and poverty rates for people of color have fallen regionwide, according to various reports, but one study found that if there were no wage or employment inequity, people of color would earn an average of $22,000 more a year.
Compared to white Long Islanders, Black and Latino residents earn less, even when they have the same level of education, said one report. Meanwhile, housing affordability, which affects people across racial and ethnic lines, “exacerbates existing inequities.”
“The poverty rate for Black and Latino residents is lower, health insurance rates across all racial and ethnic groups have gone up, and there are fewer disconnected youth than there were in 2014,” according to the 2024 report by the National Equity Atlas, titled “Long Island Equity Profile.” The report is an update of a 2017 report and was done in collaboration with the Urban League of Long Island, Citibank and the New York Community Trust — Long Island.
“Progress has been limited, particularly in terms of the racial income gap,” the study said.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Data shows that while Black Long Islanders and other people of color have made gains in median household income amid falling unemployment and poverty, challenges persist.
- The National Equity Atlas, in a collaboration with the Urban League of Long Island, found that in 2020, “Long Island’s economy could have been $25 billion stronger if its racial income gaps in income could have been closed.”
- A New York State Labor Department report on Long Island’s Black workers found their unemployment rate more than halved between 2010-23.
‘Achieving racial equity’
The National Equity Atlas, a partnership of PolicyLink and the University of Southern California Equity Research Institute, concluded that Long Island’s economy in 2020 “could have been $25 billion stronger if its racial gaps in income had been closed. Put another way, achieving racial equity in income could boost the average annual income of people of color on Long Island by nearly $22,000 — a 48 percent increase.”
Edward Muña, project manager for the National Equity Atlas, based in Los Angeles at USC’s Equity Research Institute, told Newsday the Long Island GDP’s measurement is based on what it would “look like in a hypothetical society if we said if all the racial and ethnic groups essentially were making the same … And they are employed at the same rate as the non-Hispanic white folks for the area.”
The reality, he added, is much different.
“That $22,000 is reflective of a more unequal distribution. It’s reflective of different employment rates, and also reflective of different wages any one group has when compared to non-Hispanic white folks,” Muña said.
The report said that while nonwhites “are continuing to drive Long Island’s population growth,” income growth “has been uneven.” It added “workers of color are disproportionately underrepresented in future-ready jobs” and the “persistent shortage of affordable housing exacerbates existing inequities.”
Su Chen, board chair of the Urban League of Long Island, said in a recent conference call with Newsday and several board members that the report offered a “blueprint of what things we need to kind of look at and what needs to be improved on in our community.”
General data shows the average median household income for Black people in Nassau County topped an estimated $131,000 in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and $113,595 in Suffolk County. For Latinos, it was $122,020 in Nassau and $117,323 in Suffolk.
Hidden challenges
Other Urban League board members said the census statistics gloss over the challenges many lower-income Black residents and other minority residents face.
The median household income — the amount halfway between households that earn more and half that earn less — for whites and Asians was higher than for both Black and Latino Long Islanders — $144,456, for white people and $170,345 for Asians in Nassau, for example.
Phil Andrews, president of the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, when told of the median household income by county for Black people, said he doubted it would be that high in “Hempstead Village, Roosevelt, Uniondale,” where many people live “below a certain economic strata.”
For example, Hempstead Village’s median household income for the “Black alone” population was estimated at $74,408, according to the 2023 American Community Survey — $57,059 less than the median for Black people in Nassau.
And the village’s poverty rate for Black people was 14.5%, higher than the Nassau rate for Black residents at 8.4% in 2023. The Suffolk poverty rate for Black residents was 10.2%, according to the survey.
“While it looks like the average African American is doing well, there are large pockets of places where that’s not the case,” said Jude Massillon, vice chair of the Urban League of Long Island.
A comparison of home values in predominantly minority Wyandanch and a similar-sized part of Huntington with a predominantly white population provides another example of Long Island’s income gap, noted Travis Jackson of the Urban League. The mean value of homeowner occupied units in Wyandanch was $344,800, according to the 2019-23 American Community Survey. In the Huntington area used as comparison, the mean value was $733,000.
‘The ugly truth’
Isaiah Grigg, another Urban League board member, said people are “suffering,” unable to attain employment or jobs paying good wages.
“So why do these gaps persist?” Grigg asked rhetorically, “The ugly truth, so to speak, is as much progression that there is … a lot of Black and browns don’t have opportunity. That may be an unpopular opinion, but that’s still a reality.”
The New York State Department of Labor did an analysis of Black Long Islanders’ participation in the workforce, as part of Black History Month, finding improvements but also challenges.
The report by Shital Patel, a labor market analyst, Long Island Region, for the state Labor Department, showed there were 144,700 Black workers on Long Island, making up 9.5% of the Island’s total civilian labor force in 2023.
“That was up from 131,400 workers in 2010, or 8.8% of the region’s total labor force,” Patel wrote. “The increase of 13,300 Black workers on Long Island accounted for 39.4% of the region’s workforce gain in 2010-23.”
Patel’s report showed that Black Long Islanders participated in the labor force at a higher rate than non-Hispanic white people, and part of the difference was due to the younger average age of the Black population. The report also noted the Island’s overall unemployment rate has been below 4% since 2017, with the exception of the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, “and Black workers have benefited from the improvement in job opportunities. From 2010-2023, the unemployment rate for the Black population on Long Island more than halved, falling from 13.1% to 5.5%. However, the gap between Black and white unemployment has averaged 2.1 percentage points since 2017.” That gap remained in 2023, the report added, with the white population’s unemployment rate on Long Island at 3.4%.
“Research has identified a variety of factors causing these disparities, including racial discrimination and gaps in education, skills and professional experience,” Patel wrote. She added in her report: “In 2023, 35.0% of Black adults on Long Island had a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to nearly half (49.8%) of white adults.”
