Among Asian American and Pacific Islander workers, Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders have the highest prevalence of low-wage work

The bars show the prevalence of low-wage work among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) groups. For example, 32.7% of Southeast Asian workers are paid a low wage.

Column chart depicting the prevalence of low-wage work among South Asian, Southeast Asian, East Asian, Pacific Islander, Other Asian, and all Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers in California, in 2022. Southeast Asians experience the highest prevalence, with 32.7% earning low wages, followed by 31.6% of Pacific Islanders who also earn low wages. Meanwhile, 16.2% of South Asian workers earn low wages, showing the vast difference in low-wage work prevalence among AAPI workers.
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 definition of each AAPI group.
Chart: UC Berkeley Labor CenterSource: American Community Survey 2022Get the dataEmbed Download imageDownload PDFDownload SVGCreated with Datawrapper