Wages: Median: In an equitable economy, all workers would earn a living wage, without systematic differences by race and gender.
Insights & Analyses
- Nationally, the median hourly wage for workers ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 64 have remained relatively the same since 1990. However, median hourly wages have increased for workers ages 65 and older.
- The median hourly wage for white people ages 25 to 64 is $29 per hour compared to $23 per hour for people of color. Men ages 25 to 64 of all races and ethnicities have a median hourly wage of $28 while women’s median hourly wage is just $24. Latina women have the lowest median hourly wage at $19 per hour.
- Among workers ages 25 to 64, white people with only high school diplomas have a similar median hourly wage as people of color with some college education or an associate degree at $22 per hour on average.
- At $49 per hour, Asian American workers ages 25 to 64 with bachelor degrees or higher, and living at 200 percent poverty or above, have the highest median hourly wage out of all the racial and ethnic groups identified by the census.
- Among the 150 largest metropolitan regions in the US, the top two regions in terms of median hourly wages among all workers ages 25 to 64, are in the San Francisco Bay Area, while the bottom two are in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas.
Drivers of Inequity
Since the 1980s, our national economy has become increasingly polarized between high-wage, knowledge-economy jobs and low-wage, service-sector jobs, while the middle-wage jobs that have typically served as stepping stones into the middle class for workers without college degrees are disappearing. High-wage workers are seeing tremendous income gains while low-wage workers' wages have stagnated or declined over the past several decades. Rates of union membership have fallen by half since the 1980s, from 20 percent to 10 percent of US workers. Over ten percent of US workers primarily earn income from the gig economy, where employers hire workers as independent contractors for piecemeal or temporary jobs without healthcare and other benefits. Racial and gender inequity is baked into earnings disparities as well, since many workers of color and female workers are segregated into the lowest-paid occupations and sectors. Despite recent real wage gains for Black and Latinx workers, racial wage gaps persist across the US.
Strategies
Grow an equitable economy: Policies to ensure living wages for all
- Raise the floor on low-wage work by increasing the federal minimum wage or enacting living-wage laws, requiring paid sick days, ending wage theft, strengthening workers' rights to organize, and ensuring fair scheduling.
- Target economic development and workforce efforts to grow high-opportunity sectors that provide pathways for people without four-year degrees or those facing other barriers to employment.
- Enact policies that safeguard gig workers’ rights, such as policies that prevent the misclassification of workers as independent contractors or publicly-sponsored benefits platforms for independent workers operated at the state level.
- At the state and/or local level, create dynamic wage policies that index the minimum wage to the median wage, to prevent worsening gaps between low-income and median-income workers.
- Enact salary transparency laws that require employers to include salary ranges for open positions, which help to prevent the undercompensation of female employees.
- At the federal level, institute a federal jobs guarantee, dedicate 1 percent of infrastructure investments to a fund for inclusive job and contracting supports, increase the tax rate on capital gains and dividend income, and enforce corporate tax responsibilities by eliminating tax loopholes.
- Improve enforcement of the Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and other worker nondiscrimination statutes by expanding capacity of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to regulate businesses and respond to worker grievances.
Strategy in Action
Workers at the nation’s largest bus manufacturer secure community benefits agreement and a new union contract. Employees at New Flyer bus production facilities in Anniston, Alabama and Ontario, California have recently won considerable gains in two separate agreements with company management. In 2022, Jobs to Move America partnered with Greater Birmingham Ministries to negotiate with New Flyer on a Community Benefits Framework (CBF) for workers at the company’s Anniston and Ontario facilities. The CBF reserves 45 percent of new hires and 20 percent of promotions at each plant for members of historically marginalized communities with systemic barriers to high-wage manufacturing jobs. In 2024, New Flyer management agreed to the first union contract with workers at the Anniston plant, who are represented by the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA). The contract, approved by over 99 percent of plant workers, raises wages, improves worker benefits, and secures additional workplace rights for union members. Learn more about the CBF, and the Anniston workers’ union.
Photo Credit: Communication Workers of America
Resources
- Reports: Black and Latino Families Continue to Bear Pandemic's Great Economic Toll in U.S.; Identifying the Policy Levers Generating Wage Suppression and Wage Inequality; 4 Ways Unions Make our Economy and Democracy Stronger; The Growing Income Gap for Black Workers; The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap
- Data: Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker; State of Working America Data Library; Living Wage Calculator; Family Budget Calculator; The Self Sufficiency Standard
