Reflections on AAPI Equal Pay Day: Op-Ed

March 26th marks “equal pay day” for women across the United States. This is the date that the average woman must work to earn the same amount a white, non-Hispanic man earned in 2025.  For Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI)women, this disparity is even greater with AAPI “equal pay day” being marked on April 7.  In sum, AAPI women must work 15 months to earn what the average man earns in a year. 

This gendered pay gap exists across all races and ethnicities. On average, women earn 83 cents on the dollar for full-time, year-round work versus white men, with Black and Latina women respectively earning 66 and 58 cents on the dollar. This translates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost wages over the course of a woman’s career. The reason for this gap is complex. Women increasingly begin their careers with more education and near wage parity, yet motherhood often translates to lower wages at the time of hire. As fathers, men are not similarly penalized and are frequently rewarded with a wage premium.

Within the AAPI community, the pay gap varies significantly by class, immigration and country of origin. While on average, Asian American and Pacific Islander women make 83 cents on the dollar, this figure obscures vast differences in economic realities of working women from different ethnic groups. For example, Bhutanese and Bangladeshi women respectively earn 48 and 72 cents on the dollar compared to white, non-Hispanic men. For Nepali-speaking Bhutanese women, dramatic wage differentials often reflect their experience as refugees fleeing ethnic cleansing inflicted by Bhutan’s government in the 1980s and 1990s. Meanwhile, the harmful model minority myth portrays all Asian Americans as economically successful, erasing divergent political histories, timing/circumstances of arrival and forms of economic injustice.

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As an Indigenous CHamoru sociologist, I must also note distinct histories experienced by growing Pacific Islander communities in the U.S. and the Midwest compared to Asian Americans. From Native Hawaiians to CHamorus from the U.S. Territory of Guam, Pacific Islanders experience(d) direct colonial rule, growing militarization, and, in the case of the Marshallese, decades of nuclear testing in their islands. Consequently, calls to disaggregate “AAPI” data resulted in August 28 being observed as “NHPI Equal Pay Day”. Meanwhile, Pacific Islander women earn 59 cents for every dollar, at rates resembling our Latina counterparts. 

The larger point to bear is that racialized-gender wage disparities are fundamentally unfair and exact a price on Ohio’s economy writ large. AAPIs are the fastest-growing ethnic group in Ohio, with a population that doubled to 368,000 people since 2000. 41% of women are the sole/primary breadwinner in U.S. households with children. 

Fortunately, there are proven solutions to this problem: pay transparency legislation. Cleveland passed an ordinance that requires private and public employers to include a pay range in job postings and ban employers from asking about salary history. This policy promotes greater efficiency in the hiring process and ensures compensation is based on job requirements. Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo already have pay transparency on the books, as do over 20 states. While this legislation only affects the City of Cleveland, it is hoped that similar policies will be adopted regionally. States with pay transparency policies see wage increases of 6% for women with zero negative impact on men. Promoting pay transparency and pay equity is long overdue. Together, we can ensure that all women in Cleveland can build wealth with fewer obstacles, invest in our futures, and continue to lead in our communities.