May 21, 2014
Since May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, CEPR’s looked into Census data about AAPI workers and found some interesting tidbits.
For example, the President and some Congressional leaders would like to see the federal minimum wage go up to $10.10 per hour. If that were to happen, the data show that just over 1 million AAPI workers would be directly affected (that’s 13.7% of AAPI workers). And economic research shows that a significant number of workers making just above the $10.10 line would also get raises.
The demographics of these low-wage workers are revealing as well. Such as, the majority of AAPI workers who make less than $10.10 per hour are in their prime working years (ages 25-54). In fact, the average age of AAPI low-wage workers (36 years old) is higher than that of all the other major racial-ethnic groups.
In a future blog post, we’ll talk about the effects of unionization on AAPI workers (an update to Unions and Upward Mobility for Asian American and Pacific Islander Workers)
And for many, many more details about AAPI workers, including sub-ethnic group breakdowns, see Diversity and Change: Asian American and Pacific Islander Workers.
