Prevalence of residents paid low wages by county

The map shows the prevalence of county residents paid low wages. For example, 50.4% of Tulare County residents are paid low wages. Darker blue signals a higher prevalence of low-wage work while lighter green signals a lower prevalence.

This map of California shows the prevalence of low-wage work by county, defined as the share of residents paid less than $19.69 per hour. Generally Central Valley and Northern California counties have the highest prevalence of low-wage work. Kings County has the highest rate at 52.4% of residents paid low wages, while areas like the Bay Area have lower rates, such as 18.1% in San Francisco and 20.8% in Santa Clara County.
In 2022, the value of the low-wage threshold is $19.69. The sample includes workers who live and work in California, were employed last week but not self-employed, ages 16+, and with non-zero earnings last week. See "Data and Methods" for the description of how we group counties with small populations.
Chart: UC Berkeley Labor CenterSource: American Community Survey 2022Get the dataEmbed Download imageDownload PDFDownload SVGCreated with Datawrapper