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Some AAPI women could lose $1 million in their lifetimes to the pay gap

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May 3 is Asian American Pacific Island Women’s Equal Pay Day. It marks the extent to which AAPI women need to get up to the white males in the preceding year. 

The average salary for full-time American Asian American or Pacific Islander woman working in the U.S. is $0.95, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Jasmine Tucker is the director of research at NWLC. CNBC Make ItThat the number $0.95 is doesn’t reflect the true wage gapGiven the “massive loss of low-paying positions” in 2020, this is the latest year that data are available.

In order to better understand the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on AAPI women working part-time and seasonal jobs, the NWLC computed the gap in wage between AAPI males and AAPI woman. The average AAPI woman earned only 75c for every $1 paid to a white guy in 2020.

Despite making up 3.8% of the workforce in low-wage positions, AAPI women make up more than 2.9% in front-line jobs. Many of these women get paid less than their male, white counterparts working in similar occupations. the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum

AAPI women continue to be subjected to racialized violence, harassment and discrimination due in part to the racism and xenophobia around the Covid-19 virus. 

Tucker points out that the harassment and racism that AAPI women face at work is similar to other women of colour. It prevents them from getting equal pay and, without feeling supported or safe, achieving all their potential in the workplace. 

Noting that there is a wage gap varies widelyAmongst women in different AAPI societies.

If AAPI women work year round, they will experience a loss of $120,000. But women in other AAPI groups suffer greater losses: In an average 40-year career, Burmese women are worth $1.2million, Nepalese women over $1.1million, Hmong, and Cambodian women each lose almost $1,000,000 to the wage gap. 

Tucker explains that some AAPI women are from places where women have limited education. This makes it difficult for them to access higher-paid work or is not possible to afford living in areas of the U.S.A with better opportunities. As a result, she adds, many AAPI women are pushed into lower-paid jobs in the retail, restaurant, and personal care industries – fields that were hit the hardest by pandemic job losses.

According to the NAPAWF, in May 2020 the Asian females aged 20 or older had a peak unemployment rate of 16.4%. The NAPAWF reports that the unemployment rate for Asian women aged 20 and older reached 16.4% in May 2020. latest jobs reportThe Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that this figure has fallen to 2.6%. 

Some AAPI women, however, are still losing income: A recent NWLC poll of AAPI women who lost a job in the pandemic found that less than half  (47%) of women have gotten a new job.  

The ongoing pandemic doesn’t just threaten to widen the wage gap AAPI women face – it impacts their families’ financial well-being, too. 

Yvonne Hsu was the NAPAWF chief policy officer and government affairs officer. statementMillions of Asian American moms are caring for multigenerational families. 

She continued: “More often than not, they’re also the breadwinners … and to make up for lost wages, AANHPI women have no choice but to work longer hours and multiple jobs which often don’t provide paid medical or family leave. These women will never be able to catch up with their white male counterparts.

You can check out these:

AAPI women have the smallest pay gap—but that stat ‘masks’ big economic disparities, say experts

How the pandemic made the pay gap worse for low-wage workers and women of color

How the model minority myth holds Asian Americans back at work—and what companies should do

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