JANESVILLE Genia Stevens, the operator of a local business incubator for Black entrepreneurs, isnât surprised that one recent national study ranks Janesville and Beloit near the bottom of the stack of small metro areas when it comes to wages for minority workers. Stevens, who is Black, started her own consulting business years ago to help augment her pay at a job she worked in Rockford, Illinois. Years later, after Stevens no longer worked at the Rockford job, she learned from former colleagues that she had been paid far less than others in the office. âBack then, I just thought the economy was bad or maybe I hadnât really asked for enough money,â she said. âBut later, I learned something I hadnât realized at the time. It was that the white person next to me who had the same education, the same experience, even the same job, was making $10,000 more than I was making,â Stevens said.