Wage gap costs some Asian women $3,000 a year: Report

The wage gap typically costs Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women with full-time jobs $3,000 per year, according to a new report by the National Women’s Law Center.

The paper published Monday further extrapolates what that means for women over the course of their careers: “An AANHPI woman starting her career today stands to lose $120,000 over the next 40 years,” if the pay gap between White men and Asian women does not close. For some Asian women, that’s a best case scenario. Female Burmese, Cambodian, Hmong and Nepalese employees all stand to lose around $1 million over the course of their careers.

To be sure, Chinese, Indian, Malaysian and Taiwanese women typically made more than the white men, the analysis showed. Even that has its downfall: As a Payscale report from March noted, the perception that Asian women make as much as or out-earn White men can perpetuate harmful myths about Asian people and serve as fodder for those trying to discount anti-Asian racism.