Labor Day reflections on racial, ethnic, and gender inequality in California’s low-wage workforce

As we observe Labor Day this year, we should honor the contributions of workers and the labor movement to California’s economy as well as reflect on those who labor for the lowest wages in the state. Our newly updated Low-Wage Work in California Data Explorer paints a picture of the state’s low-wage workforce. The Data Explorer shows that workers of color, women, and immigrants are overrepresented among the 5.6 million workers paid a low wage. A clear understanding of these demographic patterns in low-wage work is essential to addressing economic inequality in the state.

Looking across racial and ethnic groups, we see that almost half of Hispanic workers and over a third of Black workers are paid low wages, in contrast to about a quarter of white workers. Experiences with low-wage work also differ within racial and ethnic groups. Our updated Data Explorer shows that experience with low-wage work varies among Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). For example, Southeast Asians^[1] and Pacific Islanders^[2] are more likely to work in low-wage jobs compared to other AAPI groups.

While women are more likely to be paid a low wage compared to men across almost all racial and ethnic groups, understanding patterns in low-wage work at the intersection of race, ethnicity, and gender is critical. Hispanic women are more likely to work in low-wage jobs compared to men or women in any other racial or ethnic group. Over half of all Hispanic women in California are paid a low wage, followed by about four out of 10 Black women, and more than a third of Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian women.

Unequal experiences with low-wage work are not new and are tied to a history of exclusion and exploitation. Immigrants have often been employed in some of the most low-paid, demanding, and dangerous jobs.^[3] The legacy of slavery, racism, and discrimination continues to shape Black workers’ experiences in the labor market.^[4] And the devaluation of women’s contributions, often paired with perceptions of service and caring labor as unskilled, shape many women’s experiences in low-wage employment.^[5] This history shapes the opportunities available to these workers and how the value of their labor is compensated.

California’s Employment Development Department data project that by 2030, one out of two expected job openings will be in occupations that currently pay low wages. Among the job categories expected to expand are those employing large numbers of women and workers of color including home health aides, fast food workers, cashiers, and retail sales workers. This highlights the need to continue to raise labor standards, including raising wages, for all workers. Organizing low-wage workers through unions and worker centers is an important pathway to moving the needle on wage inequality, as are policy solutions like increases in the minimum wage.

The Data Explorer shows California has made some strides in real wage growth among workers at the bottom of the wage distribution. Part of these gains stem from yearly increases to the state minimum wage since 2016. Recent increases to the minimum wage for almost one million fast food and healthcare workers in California should continue these gains. This Labor Day let’s celebrate the gains California has made, but also think about the work that remains to ensure all workers have good quality jobs and are treated with dignity.

 

Endnotes

^[1] Southeast Asian workers include Burmese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Loatian, Thai, Indonesian, and Filipino.

^[2] Pacific Islander workers include Native Hawaiian, Polynesian (Samoan, Tongan), Micronesian (Chamorro, One or more other Micronesian races), Melanesian (Fijian), and Pacific Islander.

^[3] Milkman, Ruth. “Immigrant Workers, Precarious Work, and the US Labor Movement.” Globalizations 8, no. 3 (June 2011): 361–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2011.576857.

^[4] Branch, Enobong Hannah. Opportunity Denied: Limiting Black Women to Devalued Work. Rutgers University Press, 2011. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hjg1q.

^[5] Boris, Eileen, and Jennifer Klein. Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. https://academic.oup.com/book/10744?login=true.