(Exert from TEN-Spring 2007 article)

Making ends meet

After graduation from high school in New Mexico, Dave Melton did what other young men he grew up with on the Pueblo of Laguna reservation did and what their fathers before them did: look for work.

For nearly 10 years, Melton put in long grueling days with minimal pay, first as a motorcycle mechanic and then mining for uranium.

“I could feel it,” Melton remembers. “I knew I didn’t want to be doing this (type of work) for the rest of my life.”

So at age 27, with my wife and four children, Melton enrolled at the University of New Mexico on a scholarship from his tribe to study economics.

Now, at 53, Melton owns Sacred Power Corporation, a manufacturer of renewable energy equipment, such as solar power panels. He started his Albuquerque-based business six years ago. Much of the company’s technologies are used in Indian Country to provide electricity and hot water.

“This is why I’m here,” Melton says. “I’ve been put on this earth to help people.”

This includes guiding his children, who are all currently attending collage. He didn’t want their career choices and, in turn, their lifestyles to be limited by a lack of education as his once were.

Research shows differences in occupational structure results in differences in salary levels. Both are tied to levels of educational attainment.

In the District, the annual medial earnings for Hispanics and Native Americans are nearly 25 percent below the District average. Blacks earn about 15 percent less then the average while Asians earl less than non-Hispanic whites.  

Job and salary projections for 2014 are positive for all races and ethnic groups. However, growth of high-paying jobs held by Hispanics, blacks and Native Americans isn’t projected to outpace the growth of low-paying jobs to the extent it is for whites and Asians, Williams says.

Management positions accounts for about 13 percent of all jobs in the District, and as a whole, are the highest-paying major occupational group. In 2000, the share of Hispanics, blacks and Native Americans in management positions in the District was barely half that of whites. The share of Asians was moderately higher than for other minority groups, but still less than whites.

Professional jobs, such as lawyers, teachers and other non-management positions that require post-secondary training, account for nearly a fifth of all jobs in the District. Similar to management positions, these jobs are high paying but there is much lower minority concentration compared to whites. By contrast, Asians are highly concentrated in professional jobs.

Other occupational groups account for two-thirds of employment in the District, but pay considerably less than management and professional jobs.

Minorities are more highly concentrated in these jobs, “Williams says.