INCOME GAP BETWEEN RACES WIDE AS IN 1960, STUDY FINDS
Published By: NYT, July 18, 1983, By John Herbers

WASHINGTON, July 17— The gap between the average incomes of whites and blacks is as wide today as it was in 1960, primarily because the proportion of black families headed by women rose from one-fifth to nearly one-half and the proportion of black men with jobs dropped sharply in that period.

Those were the principal findings of the first nonpartisan, comprehensive report on the status of blacks since the 1980 census and subsequent data were published. The study was conducted by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, a private research group headed by a Nixon Administration official.

The study shows that black and white families were, on the whole, better off than in 1960, largely because both parents work in so many more families nowadays. In fact, black families in which the husband and wife work increased their earnings at a faster rate than did white families.

Education Nearly Equal

The study showed that the educational level of blacks climbed so fast over the last two decades that it is now very close to that of whites. That has generated the movement of many blacks into the middle class, although the income earned by black college graduates is about the same as that earned by white high school graduates.

But those gains were offset by the large number of black families in which there is not a husband present to earn money. Fourteen percent of white families with children under 18 are headed by women, while 47 percent of black families are in that category, up from 8 percent in 1950 and 21 percent in 1960.

The problem is compounded, the study showed, by the fact that only 55 percent of black men over the age of 16 are employed today, as against 74 percent in 1960.

As a consequence, the median income of black families in 1981 was 56 percent of the whites' median. In 1960, the figure was 55 percent; the difference of one percentage point is statistically insignificant. Women and Poverty

The report said that families headed by women were nearly twice as likely to be poor as two-parent families, regardless of race, and that half of all black families headed by women had incomes below the poverty line.

''Despite the fact that black Americans have made some gains since the civil rights movement,'' the report said, ''the economic gap between blacks and whites remains wide and is not diminishing. On measures of income, poverty and unemployment, wide disparities between blacks and whites have not lessened or have even worsened since 1960.''

The sharp rise in the proportion of black families headed by women ''increases the likelihood that black families will be poor and also greatly increases the chances that children in these families will live in poverty,'' the report said. 'Bleak Fix' of Blacks Cited

Tom Joe, the director of the Center for the Study of Social Policy and the principal author of the report, said information for the study had come from generally available public documents that had not been brought together before for a nonpartisan study. Mr. Joe, an official of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the Nixon Administration, said it was the ''cumulative effect'' of the statistics that persuaded him of their importance.

M. Carl Holman, president of the National Urban Coalition, commented in an interview that many people, including some black leaders, were unaware of the ''bleak fix'' of poor blacks. The report, he said, raises ''some very, very serious implications'' for the future.

Disclosure of increasing economic polarization among blacks comes as the nation is sharply divided over what to do about chronic poverty and unemployment.

Most black leaders and many whites believe the Federal Government, through its welfare and social programs, has not done enough to help poor blacks recover from historical discrimination. On the other hand, President Reagan, a number of former liberal scholars and a few black leaders say the social programs of the past two decades have created a crippling dependency among poor blacks.

The unemployment of almost half the adult black males is directly related to the rapid rise in the number of households headed by women, officials say. Twenty years ago, three of every four black men were employed. But as more and more have become jobless, the burden of raising families has fallen on women, many of whom are on welfare. In many states, two-parent families are not eligible for welfare. Higher Jobless Rate Presumed

Paul Smith, a statistician with the Children's Defense Fund, said that, in addition to the men counted in the statistics who have no jobs, about 15 to 20 percent of black men aged 20 to 40 could not be found by the Census Bureau and are presumed to have neither jobs nor permanent residences. This probably means, he said, that more than half of black adult males do not have jobs. Black women, on the other hand, have experienced no decline in employment.

Mr. Smith noted that in 1970, 62 percent of black women over 18 were married and that by 1981 the percentage had dropped to 48. Married women are having fewer children, in part because most of them work, while an ever-increasing proportion of black children are born to single women, he said.

The data used for the report were collected for the most part before President Reagan took office in January 1981, and thus no conclusions could be drawn from them about the effect of his Administration's programs on blacks.

Highlights of the study, which was supported by the New World Foundation and the Field Foundation, follow. Incomes

Median family income for both blacks and whites has increased over two decades. In 1960 the black median, measured in 1981 dollars to account for inflation, was $9,919, compared with $17,259 for whites. By 1981 the figures were $13,266 for blacks and $23,517 for whites.

In the 1960's the disparity between black and white median incomes decreased, so that by 1970, black income as a percent of white income had risen to 61 percent from 55 percent. But in the next decade most of that gain was lost, and in 1981, median black income was 56 percent of that for white families.

Mr. Joe said neither regional differences in incomes nor other methods of computing incomes would make any substantial difference in that outcome.

Many black families improved their incomes over the two decades. The report said, for example, that in 1968 black families in which two parents worked had an income 73 percent as large as white families in the same category. By 1981, those black families were earning 84 percent of the white earnings.

But that was the exception. Fifty-four percent of black families are now at income levels below $15,000 a year, compared with 28 percent of white families.

''Since black, female-headed households are the most rapidly increasing proportion of all black families, the fact that they have not gained economic ground has more than offset the increases made by other types of black families,'' the report said. Education

Over two decades, blacks consistently outstripped whites in terms of educational gains. Between 1960 and 1981, for example, black males made a gain of 4.4 years of schooling on the average, compared with 1.9 years for white males.

''By 1981, the median level of schooling for both black males and females was above 12 years, and the difference between white and black years of schooling was only half a year,'' the report said.

Further, the illiteracy rate for blacks has dropped very rapidly until there is now little difference between blacks and whites in the ability to read; since 1968, school dropout rates have decreased for blacks while remaining relatively constant for whites, and rates of college enrollment for blacks have increased dramatically.

The financial rewards for education, however, ''are far different for the two groups,'' the report said. For example, 47 percent of blacks with four years or more of college earned $20,000 to $40,000 a year, while the same percentage of whites with no more than high school education earned incomes in that range.

The figures suggest, the report said, ''that the income gap between blacks and whites is less related to education than to the job opportunities open to blacks once they have completed their education.'' Employment

There was a sizable increase in the percentage of blacks employed in professional, technical, managerial, sales, craft and other jobs from which they had often been barred before the 1960's. For example, blacks increased their share of managerial and administrative jobs to 9.9 percent from 7.2 percent in the years from 1972, when affirmative action laws for hiring minorities began to take hold, to 1981.

The unemployment ratio between blacks and whites, however, has remained virtually unchanged over the two decades: roughly two to one. But there was a large increase in black males over the age of 16 who were no longer looking for work and thus were not counted in the unemployment statistics. As a result, about 45 percent of black men do not have jobs, and if those who cannot be found by the Census Bureau are added, conservative estimates put the proportion of black men without jobs at more than half.

By comparison, the percentage of white males over 16 without jobs was about 30 percent. And white women increased their employment dramatically. In 1960, 35 percent of white women held jobs. By 1982 the percentage had risen to 48.

The plight of black males becomes clearer, the report said, when looked at in raw numbers: ''Between 1960 and 1982, the black male population over age 16 nearly doubled, from 5.6 million to 10.73 million. But the number of employed black males increased by only 1.79 million, from 4.15 million to 5.94 million. Thus, the number of unemployed black males grew by 3.34 million during this period.'' Poverty

Black children are particularly affected by poverty. In 1959, 66 percent of blacks under 18 were in homes below the Government-defined poverty level. By 1981 the percentage had declined to 45. For whites under 18 in poverty, in 1959 the percentage was 21, and in 1981 it had declined to 15. Thus, black youths remained about three times more likely to live in poverty than whites.

Failure to narrow the gap was due in large part to the fact that so many black children live in households headed by women, rather than in the relatively wealthier two-parent households, the report said.

''By 1981, female-headed families represented 47.1 percent of all black families with children,'' it said. ''Since these are the families most likely to be in poverty - 1.7 times as likely as all families to be poor - this change in family composition increases the likelihood that black families will be poor and also greatly increases the chances that children in these families will live in poverty.'' Youngest Are Poorest

And the younger the children, the higher the incidence of poverty. ''A startling 74.2 percent of all black children under age 6 in female-headed families live below the poverty level,'' the report said.

The report also noted that the rate of poverty had declined for blacks and whites over the age of 65, but it declined much faster for whites than for blacks.

''While poverty among the white elderly has decreased by more than 50 percent since 1959, poverty among black senior citizens has fallen by little over a third,'' the authors said. ''The benefits of Social Security and Supplementary Security Income, which did so much to lift white older people out of poverty in the 1970's, seems to have had a much smaller effect on the black elderly.''

Copies of the report, entitled ''A Dream Deferred: the Economic Status of Black Americans, a working paper'' may be obtained for $10 apiece from the Center for the Study of Social Policy, 236 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D.C. 20002.

Illustrations: graphs of gaps between races in income, jobs and schooling (page A8)