Introducing the Black Business Parity Dashboard from the Center for Community Uplift at Brookings Metro

Starting a business is often an important economic lifeline for individuals, but growing that business and eventually hiring employees is crucial to community wealth-building. As of 2022, the wealth gap between Black and white Americans was $240,120 per household. Fortunately, Black wealth is increasing, and the second-largest component of that increase is business ownership.   For Black Americans, owning an employer business (businesses with at least one employee) is also a crucial economic justice tool for narrowing the racial wealth gap, which was formed through centuries of denying them the ability to own anything. According to 2024 data, employer business owners had a median wealth of $550,000, while the median wealth for owners of non-employer businesses was just $135,000.  The Center for Community Uplift focuses on employer businesses because their growth creates wealth beyond the individual owner. When an entrepreneur becomes an employer, they create jobs, expand access to products and services, and circulate capital through local communities and regional economies. In recent years, there are encouraging signs that increasing and sustaining the share of Black employer business ownership in the United States is possible. From 2017 to 2022, the number of Black-owned employer businesses nationally increased year over year, along...