Skin Color Can Cap How Much Money an Immigrant Can Make

Oct. 18, 2006 — -- More than just race, more than ethnicity and even more than education, it is the tone of an immigrant's skin that may determine his or her financial success.

The lighter skinned you are, the more money you make, according to a new study by economist Joni Hersch at Vanderbilt University. Hersch told ABC News she was shocked by her own findings. "I was absolutely astonished by how strong and consistent the skin color effect was even after I considered a whole series of alternative interpretations and explanations."

Hersch based her study on interviews with more than 2,000 legal immigrants who participated in a federally funded 2003 New Immigrant Survey. She rated the tone of their skin on a 10-point scale, with one being the lightest, 10 being the darkest, and found the lighter a person's skin, the more money he or she made, even when people had nearly the same experience, training and skills.

Immigrants with the lightest complexions earned, on average, between 8 to 15 percent more than those who had the darkest skin tones, after controlling for race and country of origin as well as for other factors related to earnings, including occupation, language skills and type of visa.

Hersch estimates that skin tone has as much influence on earnings as education, claiming a particularly dark complexion completely wipes out the advantage of good schooling. "The results are so strong that you're as bad off if you're one unit darker than if you have one year less of education," said Hersch.

New York immigration attorney Sandra Nicholls said she wasn't surprised by the results because her clients constantly tell her about discrimination against them. "I also see the same discrimination, even in immigration services itself," she said. "However, I was saddened by the results because I would hope that Americans were moving beyond color as a factor in decision making."

And this is something employers need to pay attention to, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, especially because of demographic shifts and a more diverse labor force.

"Employment discrimination based on skin color is still a problem in the 21st century workplace," said EEOC spokesman David Grinberg, "and that's more than 40 years after passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act."

The Vanderbilt study is just the latest example of the ways research has documented what many assume is true -- discrimination based on skin color is a well-known fact in United States. But Hersch pointed out it's not exclusive to this country.

"There's preferential treatment for lighter skin in many countries, like Asia and South America," she said.