That the typical white family still has the highest income in the city in spite of sizable gains among communities of color is evidence, advocates said, that there is more work to be done to reach parity in an increasingly expensive region, especially as Greater Boston continues to become more diverse and the city itself is majority people of color.
“We’re doing the right things,” said Dr. Joseph Betancourt, chair of Unidos In Power, an umbrella organization of Latino advocacy groups throughout Massachusetts. “It’s just a matter of continuing to deliver and investing the resources needed to both address these income gaps and improve the health and well-being of communities of color.”
On the state level, white income didn’t grow in the past year, Black income rose 12 percent, and Asian American households saw a 7 percent increase. Hispanic median income dropped 2 percent, a sign, advocates said, of the pandemic’s lingering effect on front-line workers.
“People might look at it and say, ‘Oh, it’s just 2 percent,’” said Yves Salomon-Fernández, president of Urban College of Boston, a Hispanic and Asian American-serving institution in downtown Boston. “But a 2 percent decrease over time can become really significant.”
She added: “This is a call to action.”
While the data show sizable median income gaps among different racial and ethnic groups, there are also stark income disparities within communities on city, metro, and state levels. This is most apparent in the Asian American community, where families had a median household income of more than $130,000 when looking at Greater Boston and the state as a whole, but a $69,000 median household income within the city of Boston.
Indeed, these in-group disparities might be caused by the sheer number of nationalities that make up broader racial categories. A more affluent Indian American in Lexington and a low-income Korean American household in Boston Chinatown, for example, would be lumped into the same category and show up as disparities between the city and suburbs in census data.
Danielle Kim, executive director of The Boston Foundation’s Asian Community Fund, called the difference “staggering,” and connected it to a 2021 Boston Indicators report that found about one in three Asian Americans in the city lived in poverty. Asian American neighborhoods in Boston have not been prioritized when funneling housing, business, or transportation resources into city neighborhoods, she said, and the census numbers could reflect that.
“This data is a call for all of us to make sure the Asian community isn’t overlooked and forgotten,” Kim said. “We need to make sure that when we think of equity, or how all our communities thrive, our Asian residents in Boston also need to be part of that equation.”
Phyllis Barajas, founder of Conexión, a leadership and mentorship program for Hispanic and Latino professionals, cautioned that people analyzing the data shouldn’t just celebrate the gains among various communities; they should also consider the data’s implications on the region’s racial wealth gap. A 2022 Urban Institute study found white Boston residents had, on average, 180 percent higher net worth than Black Bostonians, for example.
She said many well-paid, young professionals who have gone through her program have emigrated from Latin America, and were sending much of their paychecks back to their native country, rather than saving for the future.
“In spite of our best efforts, the system doesn’t work with us, and that’s where it gets sticky,” Barajas, who also sits on Unidos In Power’s steering committee, said.
Carlos Vasquez, director of engagement for Conexión, said the trends were promising, but the numbers could be better if the region’s leaders invested in more affordable housing, breaking language barriers across all fields, and making funding sources such as traditional bank loans more accessible. Doing so could help people concentrate more on efforts that often translate to a higher wage, such as obtaining a college degree or credentials, or generating wealth for future generations.
“Latinos are essentially the driving force of entrepreneurship in the US as of the last couple of years,” Vasquez said. “But they face tremendous business capital barriers.”
The one-year American Community Survey is conducted annually, but because the sample sizes are smaller than the five-year count and the biennial census, there’s a larger margin of error. Despite its shortcomings, analysts often rely on it for identifying demographic characteristics.
The survey’s handful of racial categories also make it hard to pinpoint the causes behind the income gaps, advocates said. For example, Salomon-Fernández said one household that is either extremely impoverished or extremely rich could skew the data so that an onlooker couldn’t understand what’s typical in a certain community.
“It doesn’t mean we don’t have an issue or a problem to address,” Salomon-Fernández said. “It just means we need to further disaggregate the data to understand what we can learn from the groups that are doing well, and what we know about the groups that aren’t succeeding at the same rates.”
Kim with The Boston Foundation said the data equity provision Governor Maura Healey signed into law last year could help advocates in providing more nuanced solutions to the state’s income gaps. It would allow for income data to include nationalities, such as Cambodian or Nigerian, rather than broad racial terms, but it won’t take effect until 2026.
With more specific numbers, Kim said, local leaders can tackle the area’s income disparities with more specific policies.
This story was produced by the Globe’s Money, Power, Inequality team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter here.
Tiana Woodard can be reached at tiana.woodard@globe.com. Follow her @tianarochon. Vince can be reached at vince.dixon@globe.com. Follow him @vince_dixon_.