Elon Musk has once again sparked discussions on social media with a terse comment on a post addressing the pay gap in the US. Musk shared The Rabbit Hole’s post on annual earnings for full-time workers, commenting “interesting,” and drew attention to a key statistic: Asian American women rank as the second highest earners in the U.S., surpassing white male Americans in average annual earnings.

Taiwanese Americans sit at the top of the list, followed by Asian Americans, and then Turkish Americans, Iranian Americans, Chinese Americans, Lebanese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Korean Americans.

The data, derived from reports by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), underscores a complex landscape of income inequality. Asian American women’s rise to the second-highest spot in median income challenges long-held narratives about the gender and racial wage gap. Their position behind only Asian American men reflects both progress and ongoing disparities between demographic groups.

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Asian American women’s earnings are increasing, but the gender wage gap remains

The broader earnings trends reveal that women’s wages have risen steadily since the late 20th century, with notable gains among Asian American women in particular. Between 2000 and 2019, inflation-adjusted earnings for Asian women rose 26 percent, a trajectory that has consistently outpaced the national average for women.

“The natural conclusion is that the society we live in is neither racist nor sexist,” Rabbit Hole commented later in the thread.

Despite their status as high earners, Asian American women still face the overall gender wage gap within their demographic. The same BLS data shows that in 2019, Asian women earned 77 percent of what their male counterparts earned. This discrepancy mirrors similar trends among other racial groups, with white women earning 81 percent of the median earnings of white men, and black and Hispanic women earning 92 percent and 86 percent of their male counterparts’ wages, respectively.

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Musk’s reaction to the data has brought back questions about income equality, racism, sexism and how it manifests in organizations and businesses. Many people wonder, “Where is the white privilege they always complain about?”