College grads and affirmative action: are African American students getting more jobs?

Astudy of recent college graduates reports that minorities, including African Americans, Latinos and Asians, received more job offers and slightly higher starting salaries than their white counterparts.

According to the study conducted by the New York-based Hanigan Consulting Group, minority graduates received 23% more job offers than did whites even though they had 28% fewer job interviews. The average starting salary for minority graduates was $34,565, compared with $34,152 for white graduates.

Do these findings support reverse discrimination claims by angry white males? Do they suggest that affirmative action is no longer needed for minority college graduates?

The answer is a definite no. The study says minority students received more job offers and higher starting salaries because they were better qualified than their white peers. The minority graduates also fared better because they started looking for jobs earlier and had stronger resumes. Of the study's minority graduates, 24% began their job search by their sophomore year, compared with only 6% of the white graduates. Plus, 77% of the minority graduates held internships or worked in cooperative learning programs. Only 68% of the white students did so.

But this success may lead affirmative action foes to question the policy's necessity. Indeed, the study's authors said that talented minority graduates did not need affirmative action to get entry level spots.

But I contend that eliminating affirmative action on the basis of this evidence would be a mistake. The Hanigan findings rely on a small sample (116 undergraduates) from mostly elite institutions. And they compare all minorities, including Latinos--who can be of any race--and Asians with whites.

Analyzing the performance of black graduates using census data tells a different story. In 1970, the average black male college student earned only 68 cents for every dollar earned by his white counterpart. By 1990, he earned 76 cents for every dollar.

The Hanigan study also overlooks the fact that minority graduates had fewer job interviews than white graduates, despite superior credentials. This finding is consistent with a type of employer bias known as statistical discrimination: If an employer views a minority candidate as riskier than a white candidate with identical credentials, the employer demands more information about the minority candidate and is less willing to hire the minority on the basis of a resume alone. In fact, the employer will only hire a minority candidate who has been observed during an internship.

In short, superior skills, internships and affirmative action are all necessary parts of any plan to ensure that minority students receive equal opportunity in the workplace.

COLLEGE GRADS AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Median Earnings of College Grads

               WOMEN     MEN
WHITE          $30,499   $42,011
BLACK          $29,138   $34,687
HISPANIC(*)    $26,027   $31,581
ALL            $30,344   $41,413

(*)May be of any race

Source: Census Bureau, The Wage Gap: Women s and Men's Earnings, Institute for Women s Policy Research, 1993