One of the indicators of discrimination that is easy to measure and has many consequences is the racial salary gap; and it can be defined as the difference in wages between individuals of different races.

After the first quarter of 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. reported median weekly earningsinks to an external site. which showed that:

• African Americans earned 79.2% the earnings of Whites
• Hispanic Americans earned 73.7% of earnings received by Whites
• Asian Americans earned 124.7% those of Whites (while this is a higher rate of earning, Asian Americans are still victims of stereotypes and illegal discrimination)

These differences in median weekly earnings are not the exclusive result of illegal discrimination. Factors other than discrimination that affect weekly earnings include education, experience, company size, industry, location, and many more (Hallock, 2012). When individuals of one particular race happen to have more education or experience in their organizations, it is not unfair, much less illegal if they end up having different compensation levels.

The same can be said when organizations that serve certain industries or are located near the largest cities have more employees of one particular race. The differences in their wages are not considered illegal if they are the result of economic or market forces.

Although statisticians have developed methods to measure the effects of those factors, scientific methods have not been able to discard the possibility that illegal discrimination is one of the non-market reasons why such gaps in earnings exist (Bell, 2025).