NJ Has One Of America's Worst Racial Wealth Gaps, Study Says

Newark NJ

26 January, 2022

12:06 PM

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NEW JERSEY — Another study has named New Jersey as a state with one of the worst racial wealth gaps in the nation. On Tuesday, financial information website WalletHub released a ranked list of "2022's States with the Biggest and Smallest Wealth Gaps by Race/Ethnicity." See the full list and its methodology here. WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 21 key metrics, ranging from the median household income gap to the unemployment rate gap. According to WalletHub researchers, New Jersey has the 12th worst racial wealth gap in the U.S. "Because white people comprise the majority of the American population at 63 percent, we chose this racial group as our benchmark with which to measure the gap with minority, non-white populations, including Black people, Hispanics and Asians," researchers said. "To determine the overall ranking of each state, we selected the biggest gap between racial groups for each metric." Some highlights for New Jersey included: Biggest Median Household Income Gap – Black residents, 40.04% compared to white residentsBiggest Homeownership Rate Gap – Hispanic residents, 52.48% compared to white residentsBiggest Poverty Rate Gap - Hispanic residents, 203.39% compared to white residentsBiggest Educational Attainment Gap – Hispanic residents, 54.03% compared to white residents Nationwide, non-Hispanic white Americans had a median household wealth of $139,300, compared to $12,780 for Black households and $19,990 for Hispanic households. The largest wealth gaps by race were seen in Washington D.C. (#1), Wisconsin (#2) and Minnesota (#3). The smallest wealth gaps were seen in West Virginia (#51), Hawaii (#50) and Montana (#49). "Some key factors driving the racial wealth gap include unequal access to higher education and employment for minorities, as well as residential segregation that still persists," WalletHub reported. Article continues below NEW JERSEY'S WEALTH GAP New Jersey's massive racial wealth gap is something that advocates have been warning about for years. According to the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ), the median net worth of white families in the state was $309,000 in 2019, while the median for New Jersey's Black families is $5,900 and Latinx families is $7,020 – one of the worst gaps in the nation. "Right now — this is a shocking statistic — it would take a Black family 228 years and a Latino family 84 years to achieve the wealth that an average white family has today in 2018," said Demelza Baer, the institute's senior counsel and co-author of the report. "These disparities are driven by differences in home ownership, because the most significant asset that most Americans own is their home," Baer added. Want to compare the gap in terms of "individual net worth?" The median net worth for white people in New Jersey is $106,210 – contrasted to just $179 for Black and Latina/Latino residents. See related article: Systemic Racism In NJ Added To Pandemic Deaths, Advocates Say New Jersey's racial wealth gap is also evident in its pay gap between genders, experts say. The Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University recently released an eye-opening study, which claims that Latina women are paid less in New Jersey than almost any other state in the U.S. How bad is it? In New Jersey, for every dollar that non-Latino, white men earned, Latinas made a measly 46 cents. See related article: Latina Workers In NJ Face One Of America's Ugliest Pay Gaps Send news tips and correction requests to [email protected] Sign up for Patch email newsletters. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site.