Being white is a full time job? Explaining skin tone gradients in income in Mexico

Abstract

While scholarship on wage discrimination has confirmed that 'racism' is persistent, recent insights indicate that 'colorism'the idea that lighter skin tones are rewarded more compared to darker ones, all else equalis often more relevant in some societies where race or ethnicity are less salient markers. In this article, the following underlying theoretical mechanisms are discussed and are subjected to an empirical test: differential investment in human capital, i.e. education; variation in occupational status, i.e. being employed in indoor white-collar vs outdoor blue-collar jobs; and concentration in richer vs poorer regions. Mexico, known as a country where race and ethnicity generally are less salient categories for social stratification while skin tone is more important, is used as a case. Based on regression analyses on the most recent 2017 wave of the National Survey on Discrimination in Mexico, we show that there is an effect of skin tone on income that is explained by differences in education, occupational status and, to a lesser extent, regional concentration. Triangulating the findings with data from 2010 indicate that if colorism is at work, it are the lightest tones that are privileged, not the darkest ones that are penalised.

Stratification economics in the land of persistent inequalities

“…As in the case of callbacks by employers, the stratification regime based on skin tones also affects the income received from labor. Campos‐Vázquez and Medina‐Cortina (2019) and Reeskens and Velasco‐Aguilar (2021) find the existence of an earnings premium for whiter skin tones even after controlling for several covariates related to work productivity. In other words, on average, the stratification regime puts a higher value on the effort of light‐skinned persons than that of the rest of the workers.…”

El Marco Nopal: Un Marco Heurístico para Entender el Racismo en el Contexto de México

“…A pesar de los estudios que revelan discriminación y desigualdades vinculados con los gradientes del color de la piel, persiste una falta de reconocimiento del racismo evidenciado en la ausencia de políticas públicas e intervenciones comunitarias que aborden las formas de discriminación racializadas. Aunque la literatura académica reconoce el racismo en México, a menudo optan más por el enfoque colorismo (Charles, 2021;Reeskens & Velasco Aguilar, 2021;Villarreal, 2010). La perspectiva del colorismo prioriza las preferencias y prejuicios hacia tonalidades de piel dentro de un mismo grupo étnico o racial (Walker, 1983), pero en realidad omite la complejidad del racismo y las dinámicas de poder en los estratos sociales.…”