Barriers to quality, empowered jobs for working people in the Bay Area endanger the future of our economy.

While employment rates fail to show the quality of jobs workers have, the racial disparities in this simple measure can still be an important indicator of workforce equity. In Santa Clara County, about four in five adults are employed, with much smaller racial gaps than the region as a whole.

Not all job creation is good job creation.

Prior to Covid-19, job growth in the Bay Area was overly concentrated in low-wage occupations (50 percent growth between 1980 and 2018, compared to 38 percent growth in high-wage jobs). The pandemic erased much of that growth, as many low-wage workers were displaced from jobs deemed “nonessential.”

In Santa Clara County, middle-wage job growth has been very strong (92 percent from 1990-2021), but improving job quality and protections for all workers in all sectors remains essential for building a more equitable and sustainable regional economy.

Economic growth should benefit all workers and communities.

As the Bay Area’s economy has grown tremendously over the past few decades, most of the income growth has been captured by people in the highest-paid jobs. Pay for the highest-earning workers in Santa Clara County has increased by 70 percent since 1980, while earned income has declined by 12 percent over the same period for those in the lowest-paid jobs.

In their 2021 Silicon Valley Pain Index, San Jose State found that since the publication of their 2020 report, the top 10 Silicon Valley moguls (all White men) have increased their net wealth to $571 billion—an increase of 130%. Meanwhile African American incomes have decreased by 1% to $40,381 and Latinx incomes have increased by 5.7% to $30,618.

Worker power is the only time tested, scalable strategy to create family-sustaining jobs.

Strengthening unions and other forms of organizing that build collective power among working people is essential to improving job quality, and can increase the availability of a skilled workforce. In the Bay Area, Native American and Black workers are most likely to belong to unions. But overall, more than five out of six workers in the region are not protected by union membership.

Check out The Union Effect in California report by UC Berkeley for more on how unions affect the lives of all working people in California.

Eliminating barriers to employment and closing racial wage gaps could boost Santa Clara County’s economy by more than 30 percent.

The Bay Area’s greatest asset is the people who live and work here. When everyone isn’t given a chance at family-sustaining work, it limits our collective economic potential. In 2019 alone, employment barriers and pay inequities cost Santa Clara County’s economy an estimated $104 billion in unrealized GDP.

Santa Clara County becomes more diverse every year, paving the way for unprecedented creativity, culture and innovation.

About 70 percent of Santa Clara County residents are people of color. This diversity can be a cornerstone of a thriving Bay Area economy, if children, families, and working people of color are allowed to reach their full potential.

Quality, affordable higher education should be available to everyone, yet deep racial inequities persist.

About 53 percent of adults in Santa Clara County have at least a bachelor’s degree. This includes almost 69 percent of Asian or Pacific Islander and 61 percent of white adults, but just 17 percent of Latinx and 39 percent of Black adults have a four-year degree.

For more data on post-secondary education in Santa Clara County, check out California Competes’ Postsecondary to Prosperity Dashboard.

On average, white people are paid far more than people of color in the Bay Area, giving them out-sized economic and political power.

On average, white workers in Santa Clara are paid about 20 percent more than the County’s median wage, while US- born Black workers are paid 22 percent less than the median, and US-born Latinx and Black immigrant workers are paid 35 percent less. At $19/hour, Latinx immigrants are paid the lowest median wages in Santa Clara County — almost 50 percent below the county median.

How much you get paid determines how much you can afford; just 58 percent of working people in Santa Clara County can afford basic family living expenses.

Only 26 percent of Latinx and 44 percent of Black full-time working people in the county are paid enough to cover the cost of living for a family of four with two full-time working adults, compared to 71 percent of their white counterparts.

Segregation at work continues to suppress opportunity for many working people of color.

Black and Latinx working people are crowded in occupations that tend to offer lower quality jobs, while white and Asian or Pacific Islander working people are overrepresented in several high paying fields.

In Santa Clara County, Latinx workers make up 27 percent of the overall workforce, but 66 percent of those in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance jobs.

Quality, empowered jobs are critical, and everyone must be able to access them.

Across all racial groups in Santa Clara County, labor force participation is highest for male-identifying people. Among female-identifying people, the gap is largest between Latinx and Asian or Pacific Islander adults (69 percent labor force participation) and Black adults (78 percent). Among male-identifying people, the largest gap is also between Black workers and their Asian or Pacific Islander counterparts, though in the opposite direction (78 and 89 percent, respectively). To ensure all people have access to quality jobs, systemic and structural changes are needed that address bias in hiring and the inequitable availability of child care, transportation, and housing.

Everyone deserves safe, stable, and affordable housing.

People of color, and especially women of color, shoulder the greatest burden of the lack of affordable housing in the Bay Area. Outrageous housing costs and unlivable wages force too many families to choose between paying rent, paying for other essential needs, or moving out of their communities. In Santa Clara County, 62 percent of renter households headed by Latina and Black women are rent-burdened, by far the highest rate among any other racial/ethnic and gender groups.

Many Bay Area working people face extremely long and expensive commutes resulting in less take-home pay, higher child care costs, and lower quality of life.

High housing costs in areas where jobs are most concentrated mean that low-income workers who rely on public transit have the longest average commutes in the Bay Area. About 7 percent of Black and Native American workers spend 90 minutes or more traveling to work, one way. All workers deserve access to safe and affordable transportation with a reasonable commute time. Not only are shorter commutes better for workers, they are also better for communities and the environment.

No one in the Bay Area should be without affordable health care.

Safe and healthy working people means healthy families, strong communities and thriving businesses. Yet nearly one in ten Latinx residents in Santa Clara County do not have health insurance — three times the rate of their white counterparts.

Our political leaders must reflect the Bay Area community.

People of color are not equitably represented in high-level elected offices, contributing to political and economic power imbalances. In Santa Clara County, people of color are two thirds of the population but hold just one third of high-level elected offices. Increased economic and political power in communities of color can lead to a Bay Area that works for all of us.