A new report from the Economic Policy Institute, titled “Black-White Wage Gaps Expand with Inequality,” finds that black-white income gaps are larger today than they were in 1979. According to the study’s authors, “our research reveals that changes in black education levels or other observable factors are not the primary reason the gaps are growing” and that, in fact, “just completing a bachelor’s degree or more will not reduce the black-white wage gap. Indeed the gaps have expanded most for college graduates.” The growth of economic inequality since the 1970s has hurt Americans of all races, but the rising racial wage gap leads the study’s authors to insist that achieving greater economic inequality will require policy solutions that reverse the broader trends causing economic inequality as well as the specific impacts of racial discrimination on African Americans.

Read the report for detailed analysis and some policy proposals aimed at addressing the problem.