Who are California’s American Indian and Alaska Native low-wage workers?

California is home to the largest population of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) in the country.[1] To better understand the social and economic forces affecting low-wage AIAN workers in the state and improve their visibility in the labor market, the UC Berkeley Labor Center’s Low-Wage Work in California Data Explorer includes analysis of this group. We find that 34% to 49% of AIAN workers are paid low wages—a rate potentially higher for women, depending on how the group is defined. We look at the impacts of these findings and important differences observed within the AIAN workforce. We end by highlighting some remaining questions that require further exploration by researchers seeking to understand the state’s diverse workforce.

There are multiple methods for identifying AIAN workers in common labor market data. The method chosen can result in different estimates of population size and underlying characteristics.[2] To capture the diversity within the AIAN community, the Data Explorer includes three methods of identifying AIAN workers.

• Non-Hispanic (NH) AIAN alone includes only those workers who identify as AIAN with no other race/ethnicity.
• Hispanic AIAN alone includes only those who select Hispanic ethnicity and AIAN race.
• Lastly, AIAN in combination with any other race or ethnicity includes all workers who select AIAN with or without another race/ethnicity.

Differences in language and tribal or ancestral background suggest that the three definitions represent distinct groups of workers. For example, the majority of AIAN in combination with any other race or ethnicity speak primarily Spanish, while 90% of non-Hispanic AIAN primarily speak English. Many Hispanic or multiracial AIAN low-wage workers identify as “Mexican”—43% and 31%, respectively—but the majority of non-Hispanic AIAN alone identify as “American Indian.” Allowing for flexibility in how the group is defined ensures that diverse AIAN communities are not misrepresented or excluded from analyses, as has historically been the case.

This is particularly important in California, where most AIAN workers paid low wages also identify with another race or ethnicity. Close to half identify as Hispanic (Table 1).

Data suggest that the prevalence of low-wage work is lower for workers who identify as non-Hispanic AIAN alone relative to some other groups. While 49% of Hispanic workers and 37.2% of Black workers are paid low wages, 33.6% of non-Hispanic AIAN alone workers earned less than $19.69 (our low-wage threshold) in 2022.  But, when we expand this category to include Hispanics or other races, the percentage of AIAN workers paid low wages increases by 10 to 15 percentage points. Close to half of AIAN workers who identify as Hispanic or in combination with another race are paid low wages. These differences persist as we consider gender.

Women who identify as AIAN with another race or ethnicity, including Hispanics, are more likely to be paid a low wage than men of the same groups. We see this pattern with other racial categories too; white, Hispanic, Black, Asian, and multiracial women are all more likely to be paid low wages than men. However, this pattern does not hold for women who identify as non-Hispanic AIAN alone. Within that group, 34.8% of men and 32.7% of women are paid less than our low-wage threshold.

While unequal experiences with low-wage work across gender and racial groups are not new, our inclusion of AIAN data for the first time in the Data Explorer’s findings prompts important questions. In particular, why does the prevalence of low-wage work—overall and by gender—differ depending on how the AIAN category is defined? What economic and social forces affect the extensiveness of low-wage work among different AIAN communities? What policies might mitigate some of the barriers to earning a higher wage for American Indian and Alaskan Native workers?

The goal of the Data Explorer is to highlight workers across the state using the largest, most up-to-date, publicly available data. We also hope to inspire future research on the experiences of AIAN workers who are paid low wages across the state.

 

Endnotes

[1] CA Consortium for Urban Indian Health, California Native Vote Project, and Advancement Project California. “We the Resilient: Stories and Data from American Indians and Alaska Natives in California.” Accessed May 28, 2024.

[2]Brundage Jr., Vernon. “A Profile of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. Labor Force : Monthly Labor Review: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2023/article/a-profile-of-american-indians-and-alaska-natives-in-the-us-labor-force.htm. CA Consortium for Urban Indian Health, California Native Vote Project, and Advancement Project California. “We the Resilient: Stories and Data from American Indians and Alaska Natives in California.” Accessed May 28, 2024. https://canativevote.org/what-we-do/research/. Urban Indian Health Institute. “Best Practices for American Indian and Alaska Native Data Collection,” 2020. https://www.uihi.org/resources/best-practices-for-american-indian-and-alaska-native-data-collection/. Villegas, Malia, Amber Ebarb, Sarah Pytalski, and Yvette Roubideaux. “Disaggregating American Indian & Alaska Native Data: A Review of Literature,” 2016. https://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/AIAN-report.pdf.