The higher you go, the fewer Black professionals you see. At the senior manager and VP level, Black workers make up just 5% of the workforce, and at the SVP level, just 4%. At the very top, only around 1% of Fortune 500 CEO spots are held by Black leaders.
If the current trajectory continues, McKinsey & Company estimates that it could take 95 years before Black employees reach parity at all levels in the private sector.
"Black workers, on average, are not being hired, promoted or paid according to what would signal their level of productivity based on their experience or their education," Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute's program on race, ethnicity and the economy, tells CNBC Make It. And "it absolutely impacts everything. It impacts your family's economic security."