Racial disparity

A new report from the National Urban League highlights progress, but also underscores how elusive economic equality is.

The WSJ’s Lauren Weber talks about "how we sort ourselves into different occupations and how in some ways we are sorted."

Scholars say local action directed at improving access to housing, health care and education are more likely to pass than cash payments.

Recommendations start "with those folks who are clearly descendants of 250 years of wage theft in this country," says Sen. Steven Bradford.

After a state task force issued a nearly 1,100-page report in 2023, lawmakers are starting to look at reparations policy options.

And that legacy means a worker can be paid as little as $2.13 an hour at the federal level.

Conditions at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake in Wisconsin were so bad that now, a federally appointed monitor oversees the facilities. As the number of kids there has declined, costs have gone up.

Some advocates say the industry needs to move more quickly to address the issue.

Manufacturers complain they can't find skilled workers, even as they face a wave of retirements of older white men.

White unemployment applicants were more likely to get relief than Black applicants.