The United States economy depends on immigrant workers, who research and data show are not only a linchpin of the current workforce but also necessary for future economic growth. Yet, political debate routinely misrepresents their contributions. Despite the fact that three-quarters of immigrants live in the US with a lawful status and nearly half are naturalized US citizens, the focus remains on undocumented immigration—a stereotyped image that does not match the reality of most immigrant workers.
Immigrants—including people who have become US citizens, have lawful permanent residence (a green card), have a temporary immigration status, or lack lawful status—comprise 18 percent of the US workforce and large shares of essential jobs like food, construction, and care workers. They represent a wide range of races, ethnicities, and education levels, with the majority long-term residents and many US citizens.
Immigrants work across many parts of the economy, mostly in middle- and high-wage jobs. However, immigrant workers are also disproportionately represented in essential sectors that pay lower wages. Immigrants in these low-wage jobs are less likely than other immigrant workers to be US citizens, exposing them to greater risk of exploitation and aggressive enforcement tactics. Expanded enforcement efforts, including worksite raids, have the potential to disrupt key sectors of the economy through primary and secondary effects.
In these charts, we focus on the role that immigrants play in the low-wage workforce and their key characteristics, giving policymakers and employers a more complete understanding of immigrants’ contributions to the US economy.
We define low-wage workers as those making equal to or less than two-thirds of the median hourly wage for workers in their prime working years (25–54 years old) in each year of the data, which equaled to $16.41 an hour in 2022. We keep this methodology consistent throughout our research on the low-wage workforce: the threshold for low-wage work always equals two-thirds of the median hourly wage for workers in their prime working years, but the specific dollar threshold may change according to the year, population, and data sources used. See “About the Data” below for more information.
Immigrants make up about 1 out of 7 people in the US and more than 1 in 6 workers in their prime working age. Prime-working-age immigrant workers are more likely to be employed in low-wage jobs (32 percent) than their US-born counterparts (25 percent), with 5.7 million immigrant low-wage workers currently employed in many different occupations and industries.
Immigrant workers are often thought of as predominately men, but men make up just 48 percent of immigrant low-wage workers, while women make up 52 percent. Women typically receive lower wages than men.
While immigrant workers comprise more than 1 in 5 low-wage workers nationally, this share is 30 percent or higher in New Jersey, California, the District of Columbia, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, Nevada, and Maryland. These eight states have among the largest immigrant populations, and more than half of all immigrants in the US live in one of these states.
Nationwide, low-wage occupations serve many critical functions to support a functioning, interconnected economy. During the pandemic, these essential workers and the importance of their roles received newfound recognition. But no matter how vital, these jobs are consistently associated with fewer benefits, less stability, and worse scheduling practices.
Immigrant workers make up a large share of many essential but low-paying occupations. The areas with the highest concentration of low-wage immigrant workers include agriculture, construction, cleaning and maintenance, food preparation, and personal care, among others.
Men and women tend to fill different jobs. The top occupations for low-wage immigrant men workers include agricultural workers and a variety of positions in construction. For women, top occupations include home health aides, nursing assistants, and maids.
Source: Authors’ estimates using the 2022 one-year American Community Survey.
Immigrants who just arrived in the country might be expected to start “at the bottom,” in low-wage work. But most low-wage immigrant workers have lived in the US for decades, with 43 percent having resided in the country for 20 or more years and 70 percent a decade or more. Despite this, only 36 percent of low-wage immigrant workers are naturalized US citizens, while 54 percent of non-low-wage immigrant workers are US citizens.
Number of years lived in the US among all immigrant workers, low-wage, and non-low-wage
Source: Authors’ estimates using the 2022 one-year American Community Survey.
Nearly identical shares of low-wage immigrant workers have a bachelor’s degree or higher compared with low-wage workers born in the US (19 and 20 percent, respectively). At the same time, low-wage immigrant workers are less likely to have earned a high school diploma than low-wage, US-born workers (with 32 and 8 percent, respectively, having less than a high school degree).
Women in low-wage jobs are more likely than men to have a bachelor’s or graduate degree, among both immigrant and US-born workers. Of low-wage immigrant workers with a university degree, 24 percent have a degree in business and 11 percent have a degree in engineering.
Research shows that several factors lead to many college-educated immigrant workers working in jobs that are not aligned with their skills, including credentials earned abroad, limited English proficiency, immigration status, and race and ethnicity. Immigrants who earn their college degrees abroad or have limited English proficiency are frequently employed in jobs that are not aligned with their educational background.
Educational attainment among US-born and immigrant low-wage workers, by gender
Source: Authors’ estimates using 2022 one-year American Community Survey.
Notes: Educational attainment refers to the highest year of school or degree completed.
The immigrant experience shapes the lives of many workers of color: three-fourths of Asian workers with low wages are immigrants, as are half of Latino low-wage workers and 13 percent of Black low-wage workers.
People from all over the world immigrate to the US. Close to half of low-wage immigrant workers (48 percent) were born in Mexico or a Central American country, the largest share of any one region. One in five low-wage immigrant workers were born in Asia (20 percent). Significant shares of low-wage immigrant workers came from the Caribbean (11 percent), South America (9 percent), Africa (7 percent), as well as Canada, Europe, and Oceania (6 percent). Although the single largest country of origin among the broader US immigrant population is still Mexico, it has been declining as a share of the immigrant population, with an increase in Asian and Central American arrivals in recent years.
Whereas the majority of the US-born low-wage workforce identify as white (with Black people disproportionately represented), the majority of the immigrant low-wage workforce identify as people of color. Nine in ten low-wage immigrant workers identify as either Asian, Latino, or Black, with an additional 2 percent identifying with two or more races or with another, unidentified race.
Nativity of low-wage workers, by racial and ethnic group identification
Source: Authors’ estimates using 2022 one-year American Community Survey.
Notes: Latino workers of any race are included in the Latino category; all other categories comprise non-Latino workers.
How can policymakers and employers best support immigrants in the low-wage workforce?
Low-wage immigrant workers are an essential part of the US economy. Most of these workers have been in the US for decades and make up a large share of the workforce in key occupations. Abrupt changes to immigration policy and the escalation of enforcement strategies have affected workers, their families, employers, and communities, creating a climate of fear for people across the country. Despite these rising threats and violations of rights, immigrants continue to show up for work and contribute.
Policymakers and employers can support immigrant workers by implementing the following recommendations:
- Ensure immigrant workers and employers are aware of their rights during immigration enforcement actions, support people whose lawful status is at risk, and reinforce pathways to lawful permanent residence and citizenship.
- Support workforce policies and practices that promote fair pay and strengthen labor protections, particularly in sectors where immigrants are heavily represented.
- Encourage employers to invest in their immigrant workers and support their advancement by offering contextualized English language instruction, educational opportunities, and by centering their unique assets in hiring and company practices.
- Reduce barriers to occupational licensure to allow immigrants to work in fields aligned with their professional and educational backgrounds.
- Support immigrant entrepreneurship for low-wage workers creating and growing their own businesses that support their advancement while also enriching their communities and the economy.
- Facilitate access to basic needs programs by addressing language barriers and immigration-related concerns to support eligible immigrant workers’ well-being and economic mobility.
When immigrants have access to basic supports, workplace protections, and educational opportunities, the US can build a stronger economy that recognizes skills and creates pathways to upward mobility for more workers.
ABOUT THE DATA
This feature uses data from the 2022 one-year American Community Survey, downloaded from IPUMS-USA. We define immigrants as individuals who were born outside the United States and its territories. Those born in Puerto Rico and other territories or born abroad to US-citizen parents are considered US-born. Thus, any analysis that is immigrant-specific excludes these groups.
We include information on workers living in the 50 states and DC, excluding people residing in Puerto Rico and other territories at the time of the survey.
We define workers in their prime working age as individuals who have worked at least one week over the previous 12 months working full- or part-time, aged 25 to 54 years old, and who reported wages. We do not exclude farmers or workers in the armed forces. However, we do exclude people who reported being self-employed as their occupation.
We calculated wages using data on the respondent’s total pre-tax wage and salary income (income as an employee) for the previous 12 months and information on the number of weeks worked in that period and the usual number of hours worked per week. To calculate an hourly wage, we divided the annual income by the product of the number of weeks worked and the usual number of hours worked per week. All estimates use person-level weights provided in the data.
We identified top occupations by selecting the twenty-five occupations with the largest numbers of low-wage immigrant workers, then sorting those with the largest shares of immigrant workers and highlighting the top ten occupations (those with the highest shares of immigrant low-wage workers) for women and the top ten for men. We note that agricultural workers raise unique measurement challenges in the American Community Survey and may be undercounted.
PROJECT CREDITS
This data tool was funded by the WorkRise funder collaborative. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for WorkRise and Urban to advance their missions. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to WorkRise, the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of our experts.
We would like to thank Ofronama Biu, William Congdon, Teresa Kroeger, Dulce Gonzalez, Diana Guelespe, David Dyssegaard Kallick, Beth Jacob, Elisabeth Jacobs, and Elaine Waxman for their review of earlier drafts.
RESEARCH Hamutal Bernstein and Fernando Hernandez-Lepe
DATA VISUALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT Ben Kates
DESIGN Christina Baird
EDITING Lexi Mills
WRITING Wesley Jenkins
