A study by Bloomberg Business of 12,700 alumni of more than 100 business schools in the United States found a major racial gap in salaries of their graduates. The data showed that Black and White graduates of business schools earned similar salaries in their first jobs after graduating from business school. But six to eight years after leaving business schools, underrepresented minorities – Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians – had a median salary of $150,000. Whites, who had graduated from business school six to eight years ago, had a median salary of $172,000.
The racial gap was even larger at some of the nation’s more prestigious business schools. At Harvard, Black graduates started out with a median salary that was $5,000 below the median salary of White graduates. But six to eight years out from graduation, the racial gap had grown to $97,000. The study found that for students who graduated six to eight years ago, the racial gap was more than $80,000 at Columbia Business School and $65,000 for graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.