A recent study shows that despite educational advances, wage disparities between whites and non-whites persist in Brazil. The income gap narrows with schooling but remains substantial, especially among the richest. This indicates that racial prejudice continues to affect the job market.
In a column published in Folha de S.Paulo on October 27, 2025, economist Michael França, a researcher at Insper and winner of the Jabuti Academic Prize, discusses how formal education does not fully eliminate the cost of racial prejudice. França, who holds a degree in economics from USP and was a visiting scholar at Columbia and Stanford, highlights advances in policies democratizing higher education, which have narrowed part of the gap between whites and non-whites.
However, a study conducted by Alysson Portella and França, under the Insper Racial Studies Center and published in The Journal of Development Studies, reveals that non-white workers earn, on average, 31% less per hour than whites. When accounting for schooling level, this difference drops to 27%, a significant reduction but still substantial.
Examining the income distribution, disparities are larger among the poorest and, particularly, among the top 5% richest, reaching 65% after controlling for schooling. Factors like private schools and networks explain part of this, but a portion remains 'unexplained,' which may indicate racial discrimination. França concludes that Brazil needs to go beyond university access, addressing inequalities in public basic education and elite educational levels.
The text pays homage to the song 'Negro Amor' by Gal Costa and Jorge Drexler, emphasizing that inequality extends beyond training to involve insertion and recognition.