The Color of Food

by Yvonne Yen Liu and Dominique Apollon, Applied Research Center (now called Race Forward)

The study, The Color of Food, from our friends at the Applied Research Center, reveals deep inequity in the food system. People of color typically make less than whites working in the food chain. Half of white food workers earn $25,024 a year, while workers of color make $5,675 less than that. This wage gap plays out in all four sectors of the food system—production, processing, distribution and service—with largest income divides occurring in the food processing and distribution sectors. Women working in the food chain draw further penalties in wages, especially women of color. For every dollar a white male worker earns, women of color earn almost half of that.