Closing racial wage gap in just 20 occupations would boost millions of Black Americans

About 2 million Black Americans could climb into the middle class if they were given equal wages as their White co-workers, a new study from corporate consulting firm McKinsey estimates. 

Moving that many people to the middle class would benefit the larger U.S. economy as well as Black communities, said Shelley Stewart III, a McKinsey partner who led the study released Thursday.  Newly minted middle-class families would have much less need for public assistance like food stamps and housing vouchers, thus reducing U.S. government spending on social service programs, Stewart said. Black households would earn an extra $220 billion in wages annually if the racial wealth gap were erased, and that in turn would generate more income for federal and state governments to tax, he added.