Chart: Women and Black and Hispanic workers are disproportionately represented in the low-wage workforce: Shares of the entire workforce and of the bottom 20% of wage earners, by gender and race/ethnicity, 2022

Figure

Women and Black and Hispanic workers are disproportionately represented in the low-wage workforce: Shares of the entire workforce and of the bottom 20% of wage earners, by gender and race/ethnicity, 2022

Group	Share of the workforce	Share of the bottom 20%

Men	52.0%	42.4%
Women	48.0%	57.6%

White	59.9%	51.4%
Black	12.9%	16.9%
Hispanic	18.6%	24.7%
AAPI	7.5%	5.7%

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Note: AAPI refers to Asian American and Pacific Islander. Race/ethnicity categories are mutually exclusive (i.e., white non-Hispanic, Black non-Hispanic, AAPI non-Hispanic, and Hispanic any race).

Source: EPI analysis of the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata, EPI Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.37 (2023), https://microdata.epi.org.

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Low-wage workers have seen historically fast real wage growth in the pandemic business cycle: Policy investments translate into better opportunities for the lowest-paid workers

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