Earnings of second-generation Americans

In 2004, about 4.5 million second-generation workers aged 25 to 54 years and 60.8 million third-and-higher-generation workers in the same age group were employed full-time, year-round.

[Chart data—TXT]

The 2004 median annual earnings of the second-generation workers were $40,417, somewhat higher than the $38,982 for their third-generation-and-higher counterparts.

The difference was largely because second-generation women workers had median earnings that were considerably higher ($36,275) than those of their third-generation-and-higher counterparts ($32,552). There was relatively little difference in median earnings among men for the two groups.

Second-generation Americans are defined as native-born Americans who have either one parent or both parents who are foreign born. Americans of the third and higher generations are native-born Americans whose parents are both native born.

These data are from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey. Find out more in "Labor force characteristics of second-generation Americans," by Abraham Mosisa, Monthly Labor Review, September 2006.