Income disparity greatest among Chinese Americans compared to other Asian American communities

WIKI COMMONS

Shoppers crowd Chinatown in New York City

Among Asian Americans, the model minority stereotype is like an albatross weighing down fair representation and needed services to address the inequality that eists withn that community.

However, even within th Asian Americans, the differences and needs are greater for some than others. Among Asian Americans, Chinese households are among the lowest – and highest – earners

In 2022, Chinese American households near the top of the income ladder earned over 19 times as much as Chinese American households near the bottom of the ladder. This gap was the largest across Asian American households of different origins, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Income inequality is a measure of the income gap between highest- and lowest-earning households. It has long been a public concern in the United States, especially after the economic upheaval brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A 2018 analysis by the Center found that income inequality is greater among Asian Americans than any other U.S. racial or ethnic group. In this new analysis, we explore income inequality within the origin groups that make up the Asian American population.

Indian Americans are frequently the highest-earning Asian origin group when looking at different steps on the income ladder. For example, they top the list when looking at those who belong to the lowest 10% of households and the top 10% of households by earning levels.

The story is different for Chinese Americans. 

At the lower end of the income distribution – the 10th percentile – Chinese Americans who belong to the lowest-earning households were among the poorest Asian origin groups in 2022, with annual earnings of $10,500. 

At the 50th percentile of the income distribution – the median – Chinese American households were among the Asian origin groups with the highest incomes, with earnings of $65,800. 

And at the 90th percentile, Chinese households earned $200,000 in 2022 – second only to Indian Americans. (Incomes are adjusted for household size and expressed in 2022 dollars.)

In other words, Chinese households in the 90th percentile of the income distribution earned 19.2 times as much as their counterparts in 10th percentile.

        FYI: For a more detailed analysis, click here.

Sri Lankan, Korean and Pakistani American households also had high levels of income inequality in 2022. 

By contrast, Burmese, Filipino, Nepalese and Hmong households had the lowest income gaps among U.S. Asians in 2022,

The Pew study also goes into other factors that may affect income levels, such as education, what part of the US they live and how long individuals have lived in the US.

It should be noted that the disparity exhibited by the Chinese American community is a reflection of the growing inequality between the rich and poor in the United States. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. 

Some of the reasons cited for the disparity can be attributed to globaliziation, education and ttechnological advances. However, one cannot that the  rich also benefit immensely from the tax code’s preferential treatment of income from investments.

Over the past four decades, the richest 1 percent of Americans have enjoyed by far the fastest income growth. The most rapid increase has occurred at the tippy top of the economic ladder. 

Between 1979 and 2020, the average income of the richest 0.01 percent of households, a group that today represents about 12,000 households, grew 17 times as fast as the income of the bottom 20 percent of earners. These Congressional Budget Office figures include income from labor and investments. They do not account for taxes and means-tested public assistance, such as food stamps and Medicaid.

Income disparities are now so pronounced that America’s richest 1 percent of households averaged 104 times as much income as the bottom 20 percent in 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.