MARCH 2021

|FACT SHEET

Asian American and Pacific Islander
Women Lose $10,000 Annually tothe Wage Gap
JASMINE TUCKER
Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women1 are typically paid just 85 cents for every dollar paid towhite, non-Hispanic men.2 This gap in pay, which typically amounts to a loss of $833 every month, $10,000
every year, and $400,000 over a 40-year career, means that AAPI women have to work more than 14
months to make as much as white, non-Hispanic men were paid in the previous calendar year alone.

Data in this factsheet comes from multiple sources. The term “Asian” is used
where the data refers to those who self-identified as Asian alone. The term
“AAPI” is used where the data refers to those who self-identified as Asian, Native
Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander. See footnote 1 for more information.

The wage gap varies widely among AAPI women and many AAPI communities experience much larger
wage gaps compared to white, non-Hispanic men than AAPI women overall. For example, among full-time,
year-round workers, Burmese women typically make just 52 cents for every dollar paid to white, nonHispanic men, while Japanese women are typically paid 95 cents.3
As workers, AAPI women are overrepresented on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, and as a result
are among those disproportionately affected by the pandemic’s health and economic impacts. The
pandemic has exposed how the work performed primarily by women has long been and continues to beundervalued, even as the rest of the country is depending on it as never before. Women make up nearly
two-thirds of workers risking their lives to provide health care, child care, and other essential services, andAAPI women are overrepresented in a variety of these occupations. They are also overrepresented in manyof the occupations that have borne the brunt of COVID-related job loss. Lost earnings due to the genderwage gap are exacerbating the effects of COVID-19 for AAPI women — and for the families who dependon their income. These lost earnings leave AAPI women without a financial cushion to weather the current
crisis.

More than one in four AAPI women is a front-line worker, but many are being paid less thantheir white male peers.
AAPI women are overrepresented in the front-line workforce providing essential public services during
COVID-19, making up 3.8 percent of workers in front-line industries despite making up only 2.9 percent of
the workforce overall. More than 1 in 4 AAPI women are working in a front-line job (26.6 percent).4 But AAPI
women are too often paid less than white, non-Hispanic men in the same jobs. For example, AAPI womenare 4.8 percent of dental assistants, and among those working full-time, year-round in these jobs, AAPI
women are typically paid just 72 cents for every dollar typically paid to white, non-Hispanic men in thesame occupation. Similarly, AAPI women make up 3.6 percent of cashiers and retail salespeople in grocery
stores but among full-time, year-round workers, they typically make just 89 cents for every dollar white,
non-Hispanic men typically make in the same jobs.

THE WAGE GAP FOR AAPI WOMEN IN SELECTED FRONT-LINE OCCUPATIONS

Occupation

Percent of workers
who are AAPI
womenMedian hourly wagefor AAPI women inoccupation

Median hourly wage forwhite, non-Hispanic men
in occupation

What an AAPI woman
makes for every dollar awhite, non-Hispanic man
makes

Pharmacists

12.1%$57.69$60.10$0.96

Hairdressers, hair stylists,cosmetologists, and barbers

4.8%$12.02$16.83$0.71

Dental assistants

4.8%$17.31$24.04$0.72

Waiters and waitresses

4.3%$11.54$12.98$0.89

Hand packers and packagers

3.9%$12.02$14.42$0.83

Cashiers and retail salespeople
in grocery stores

3.6%$11.54$12.98$0.89

Child care workers

3.5%$11.06$12.02$0.92

Pre-K, K-12, and special
education teachers

2.4%$24.04$26.44$0.91

First-line supervisors ofretail sales workers

2.2%$18.75$24.04$0.78

Janitors, building cleaners,
maids and housekeepers

2.1%$13.94$16.35$0.85

Source: NWLC calculations based on 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-year estimate using IPUMS. Median hourly wages are for full-time, year-round workers.
Hourly wages are derived by dividing median annual earnings by 2,080 hours, which assumes a 40-hour work week for 52 weeks.

2AAPI women are also overrepresented in industries such as restaurants, hotels,5 and retail that haveseen significant job losses as pandemic-related restrictions and fear of exposure to COVID weakened
demand. And in these jobs, too, AAPI women are frequently paid less than their white, non-Hispanic malecounterparts. For example, AAPI women make up 4.3 percent of people working as waiters and waitresses.
And among those working full-time, year-round, AAPI women are typically paid just 89 cents for every
dollar white, non-Hispanic men working in these jobs are typically paid.
Many AAPI women were struggling to make ends meet before this crisis ever started: in 2018, nearly one insix AAPI women working in any job was living below 200 percent of the federal poverty line and for AAPI
women working in a low-paid job, that rate was more the double – 34 percent.6 The wage gap, then, results
in an annual loss that can be devastating for AAPI women and their families. AAPI women in a low-paid
front-line occupation such as cashiers and retail salespeople in grocery stores typically lose $3,000 due
to the wage gap, while AAPI women working as supervisors of retail sales workers lose $11,000 due to thewage gap.7

Annual Losses Due to the Wage Gap for AAPI Women in
Selected Front-Line Jobs
Dental assistants$14,000

First-line supervisors of retail sales workers$11,000

Hairdressers, hair stylists, cosmetologists, andbarbers$10,000

Hand packers and packagers$5,000

Pharmacists$5,000Pre-K, K-12, and special education teachers$5,000Janitors, building cleaners, maids andhousekeepers$5,000

Waiters and waitresses$3,000Cashiers and retail salespeople in grocery stores$3,000Child care workers$2,000$-$3,000$6,000$9,000$12,000$15,000

Asian women are experiencing high unemployment.
Wage gaps leave AAPI women less able than their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts to successfully
weather COVID-related income loss. And many Asian women are experiencing just such income loss:
in January 2021, nearly half of Asian, non-Hispanic women (47.2 percent) reported someone in theirhousehold had lost employment income since March 2020 and another 30.4 percent expect to lose
income in the next month.8 Almost 8 percent of Asian women were unemployed in January 2021 (7.9percent).9 While this represents substantial improvement in their unemployment rate since it peaked at
16.4 percent in May 2020, it is still more than double their pre-pandemic unemployment rate of 3.0 percent
in February 2020.10 Additionally, in January 2021, nearly 2 in 5 unemployed Asian women (37.7 percent) had
been unemployed for six months or more11 and unemployed Asian women had typically been looking forwork for nearly 18 weeks. By comparison, white men had typically been looking for work for 14 weeks.12

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Over their career, AAPI women typically lose $400,000 to the wage gap.13
A loss of fifteen cents on the dollar adds up over a month, a year, and a lifetime. If today’s median wage
gap does not close, AAPI women stand to lose $833 each month, $10,000 a year, and $400,000 over thecourse of a 40-year career. Assuming an AAPI woman and her white, non-Hispanic male counterpart bothbegin work at age 20, the wage gap means she would have to work until she is 67 years old to be paid
what a white, non-Hispanic man has been paid by age 60.14
Losses due to the wage gap add up and mean that AAPI women not only have less money in their pocket
right now --it also means they are denied key opportunities throughout their lifetimes to build wealthand future economic security for themselves and their families. The wage gap means many cannot
save enough to afford a down payment on a home, cannot afford to pay for their own or a child’s highereducation, cannot start a business or save for retirement.
***

Losses due to gender and racial wage gaps are devastating for AAPI women and their families, many ofwhom were struggling to make ends meet even before the current crisis. This pandemic threatens todeepen these inequities. AAPI women have been shortchanged and their work has been undervalued for
far too long; neither they nor their families can afford to wait for change during an unprecedented publichealth and economic crisis that has no end in sight.

1 Data in this analysis comes from the U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey (CPS) and American Community Survey (ACS) and U.S. Department of Labor, Bureauof Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey. Because data comes from multiple data sources, there are some instances where the data refers to Asian women alone.
In those instances, the term “Asian women” is used. In instances where the data refers to Asian American and Pacific Islander women, the term “AAPI women” is used.
Asian women alone include those who only self-identified in one of the above surveys as Asian alone. “AAPI women” are those who self-identified as Asian, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, or Asian Hawaiian/Pacific Islander in the ACS survey and Asian and/or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander in the CPS Survey. People in all surveys selfidentified as either male or female. Please reference the individual sources cited for further detail.
2 National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) calculations based on U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2020 Annual Social and Economic Supplement [hereinafterCPS, 2020 ASEC], using IPUMS, available at https://cps.ipums.org/cps/. In 2019, the median earnings of AAPI women working full-time, year-round were $55,000 and forwhite, non-Hispanic men it was $65,000.
3 NWLC calculations based on 2015-2019 American Community Survey (ACS), 5-year estimates, using Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, Erin
Meyer, Jose Pacas, and Matthew Sobek, IPUMS USA, Version 10.0, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.
4 NWLC calculations based on 2015-2019 American Community Survey (ACS), 5-year estimates, using Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, Erin
Meyer, Jose Pacas, and Matthew Sobek, IPUMS USA, Version 10.0, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org. “Front-line workforce” is defined using the methodology
outlined in Hye Jin Rho, Hayley Brown, & Shawn Fremstad, Center on Economic and Policy Research, A Basic Demographic Profile of Workers in Front-line Industries (Apr.
2020), available at https://cepr.net/a-basic-demographic-profile-of-workers-in-frontline-industries/.
5 Amanda Fins, NWLC, Women in Leisure and Hospitality Are Among the Hardest Hit by Job Losses and Most at Risk of Covid-19 Infection (Nov. 2020), available at https://nwlc.org/resources/women-in-leisure-and-hospitality-are-among-the-hardest-hit-by-job-losses-and-most-at-risk-of-covid-19-infection/.
6 Jasmine Tucker and Julie Vogtman, NWLC, When Hard Work is Not Enough: Women in Low-Paid Jobs (Apr. 2020), available at https://nwlc.org/resources/when-hard-workis-not-enough-women-in-low-paid-jobs/.
7 NWLC calculations based on 2015-2019 American Community Survey (ACS), 5-year estimates, using Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, ErinMeyer, Jose Pacas, and Matthew Sobek, IPUMS USA, Version 10.0, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.
8 Jasmine Tucker & Claire Ewing-Nelson, NWLC, Over 61.2 Million Women Live in a Household That Has Lost Work Income Since March 2020 (Feb. 2021) available at https://nwlc.org/resources/over-61-2-million-women-live-in-a-household-that-has-lost-work-income-since-march-2020/.
9 Claire Ewing-Nelson, NWLC, Another 275,000 Women Left the Labor Force in January (Feb. 2021), available at https://nwlc.org/resources/january-jobs-day-2021/.
10 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS Data Finder, LNU04032267, available at https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/LNU04032267.
11 NWLC calculations based on U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation Summary – January 2021, Table A-36, available at https://www.
bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea36.htm (last visited Feb. 5, 2021).
12 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation Summary – January 2021, Table A-36, available at https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea36.
htm (last visited Feb. 5, 2021).
13 NWLC calculations based on U.S. Census Bureau, CPS, 2020 ASEC, using IPUMS, available at https://cps.ipums.org/cps/. In 2019, the median earnings of AAPI women
working full-time, year-round were $55,000 and for white, non-Hispanic men it was $65,000. The lifetime wage gap assumes a wage gap of $10,000 each year for 40years. Figures are not adjusted for inflation.
14 This assumes workers begin work at age 20 and work for 40 years, retiring at age 60. In order to make up the $400,000 lost to the wage gap, AAPI women would need
to work more than 7 more years in order to catch up.

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