---
"title": "IV. Earnings of Native-born and Foreign-born Workers"
"description": "The weekly earnings of workers during the recession and the initial stage of the recovery were generally stagnant.[19. numoffset=”19″ Data on weekly earnings are available only for employed persons. Household income is better able to capture the effects of unemployment on the economic well-being of households. The latest estimate from the Census Bureau shows that […]"
"date": "2010-10-29"
"authors":
  -
    "name": "Rakesh Kochhar"
    "job_title": "Former Senior Researcher"
    "link": "https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/staff/rakesh-kochhar/"
  -
    "name": "C. Soledad Espinoza"
    "job_title": "Guest Contributor"
  -
    "name": "Rebecca Hinze-Pifer"
    "job_title": "Guest Contributor"
"url": "https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/race-and-ethnicity/2010/10/29/iv-earnings-of-native-born-and-foreign-born-workers/"
---

# IV. Earnings of Native-born and Foreign-born Workers

The weekly earnings of workers during the recession and the initial stage of the recovery were generally stagnant.\[19. numoffset=”19″ Data on weekly earnings are available only for employed persons. Household income is better able to capture the effects of unemployment on the economic well-being of households. The latest estimate from the Census Bureau shows that median household income was unchanged from 2008 to 2009. The largest decline in income occurred for black households, a group with the highest rate of unemployment, and foreign-born non-citizen households, the group that includes unauthorized immigrants ([DeNavas-Walt, Proctor and Smith, 2010](http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p60-238.pdf)).\] However, foreign-born workers experienced a sharp decline in earnings during the recovery even as they managed to boost their employment. Hispanics also did not fare well—their earnings fell for two years in a row—and, among Hispanics, immigrants sustained the biggest cut in wages.

The median weekly earnings of all workers, full time and part time, were $624 in the second quarter of 2008 (earnings expressed in second-quarter 2010 dollars).\[20. The median wage divides workers into two equal groups, with half earning more than the median wage and the other half earning less than the median.\] By the end of the recession, in the second quarter of 2009, weekly earnings stood at $623. Earnings nudged upward slightly during the recovery, to $630 in the second quarter of 2010.

![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2010/10/2010-recession-12.png){.align}

In the midst of overall wage stagnation, the earnings of foreign-born workers fell sharply during the recovery. Wages for immigrants did not change much in the recession, moving from $544 in 2008 to $550 in 2009. However, in the recovery from 2009 to 2010, median earnings of foreign-born workers dropped to $525, a loss of 4.5%. The earnings of native-born workers have remained flat during the recession and recovery, starting at $651 in the second quarter of 2008 and ending at $653 in the second quarter of 2010.

Hispanics are the only group of workers whose median earnings decreased during both the recession and the recovery. Starting at $504 in the second quarter of 2008, the median weekly earnings of Latinos fell to $489 in the second quarter of 2009 and then to $480 in the second quarter of 2010.

The downward momentum in earnings for Latinos was led by immigrants. For immigrant Latinos, median weekly earnings dropped from $454 in 2008 to $448 in 2009, and then to $422 in 2010. Over the two-year period, the earnings of immigrant Latinos decreased by 7.0%.

---

**Next:** [Appendix A: Revisions of the Current Population Survey](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/race-and-ethnicity/2010/10/29/appendix-a-revisions-of-the-current-population-survey/markdown)