Almost 9 out of 10 low-wage workers are employed in the private sector

Bars show the share of workers who are paid low wages in the private or public sector, relative to the share of all workers in each sector. For example, 88.4% of workers who are paid low wages are employed in the private sector while 83.6% of all workers in the labor force are employed in the private sector.

Bar chart comparing the share of low-wage workers and the share of all workers employed in the public or private sector. Relative to the share of all workers employed in the private sector (83.6%), low-wage workers are overrepresented; 88.4% of all California workers paid low wages work in the private sector.
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. To calculate the share of workers paid low wages in 2021, we inflate 2021 wages to 2022 dollars and apply the 2022 low-wage threshold. The public sector includes federal, state, and local government employees.
Chart: UC Berkeley Labor CenterSource: American Community Survey 2021 and 2022 • Get the dataEmbed Download imageDownload PDFDownload SVGCreated with Datawrapper