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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2025
CONTACT:
Chandler Rollins, rollins@iwpr.org
New IWPR study reveals Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women lose up to $440,000 over their careers to the wage gap.
Washington, DC — A new study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), released for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Women’s Equal Pay Day, finds that AANHPI women earned just 80.4 cents for every dollar paid to White men in 2023 when accounting for all workers.
The gap equals $11,000 in lost wages annually, or nearly six months of rent at the national average. Over a 40-year career, the total loss reaches $440,000—comparable to the cost of an average home in most states or four years at a private university. Even among full-time year-round workers, AANHPI women earned only 92.9 cents on the dollar.
These disparities are shaped by structural inequities and were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which AANHPI women suffered significant job losses, particularly in hard-hit industries like personal care, sales, and services, where they are often overrepresented. While Asian women have seen a rebound in labor force participation—rising from 57.1 percent in 2019 to 58.1 percent in 2023, the recovery for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women has been uneven, with participation rates of 61.1 percent in 2023, 2.1 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels.
Key state-level findings from the report:
- AANHPI women earned less than White men in every state with available data for all workers. In Louisiana, the gap was widest, with AANHPI women earning just 51.2 cents for every dollar paid to White men.
- Among full-time year-round workers, AANHPI women earned less than White men in 43 of 45 states with available data, as well as in the District of Columbia. The only exceptions were Delaware, where AANHPI outearned White men, and Michigan, where pay was equal.
- In California, where the AANHPI population is the largest, full-time year-round AANHPI women workers earned 78.1 cents on the dollar compared to White men. When including all workers, that figure drops to 72 cents.
- The District of Columbia has the nation’s largest earnings gap: AANHPI women earned $80,088 on average, compared to $110,299 for White men—a gap of $30,211. For full-time year-round work, AANHPI women earned $28,164 less—the second largest gap nationwide, after Alaska. Yet more AANHPI women work full-time year-round in DC than White men, which goes against national trends.