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$27 million for an Equal Pay Initiative that will, among other things, strengthenthe ability of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to identifyand respond to wage discrimination.The Economic Progress of African AmericansOver the long term, the convergence of earnings between African Americansand whites is perhaps even more impressive than that between men and women.The gap in earnings between African American and white males declinedbetween World War II and the late 1970s. One study showed that whereas in1939 African American male wages averaged 43 percent of white male wages, by1979 this percentage had risen to 73 percent. The study noted that convergencein education has been central to these improvements. Chart 4-7 presents recentevidence showing that the relative earnings of African American men have beenincreasing only gradually since the 1970s. This trend is broadly consistent withthe education data presented above. Other research has shown that governmentpolicy appears to have played a role in improving at least the employment ratesof African American men (Box 4-1), an area of considerable importance giventhe differences in unemployment rates between the two groups.Research has also shown a near convergence in the earnings of AfricanAmerican and white females, although this trend has somewhat reversed inrecent years. One study found that African American women in 1939 earned40 percent of what white women earned; by 1979 that ratio had risen to 90percent. Chart 4-7 shows that African American women’s earnings haveslipped relative to those of white women since the early 1980s. (However, thegap in earnings between white women and African American womenremains smaller than the corresponding gap for men.) Despite these changes,other indicators of progress have been encouraging. For example, theunemployment rate for African Americans in 1999 was the lowest on record.The Economic Progress of Persons with DisabilitiesIt has been estimated that one in five Americans of working age has adisability. A person is typically considered disabled if he or she has difficultyperforming certain functions such as seeing, hearing, or walking; hasdifficulty performing activities of daily living; or has difficulty with certainsocial roles such as attending school or working. It is also estimated that 1 in10 Americans is severely disabled, in need of assistance from specializeddevices or other persons to perform basic activities. For working-age personswith disabilities, reducing discrimination, easing the transition into work,and improving labor market outcomes have been important goals of thisAdministration.The labor market behavior of persons with disabilities often tracks thebehavior of the broader groups to which they belong. For example, theChapter 4 | 141