A rise in reports of Asian American women being brutally attacked and murdered has prompted discussions around the harmful effects of gendered and racialized stereotypes, otherwise known as gendered racial microaggressions, that view Asian American women as submissive and hypersexual objects, deserving of violence, even premature death. Despite the unique risk that gendered racial microaggressions pose for Asian American women, little is known about Asian American women’s perceptions of gendered racial microaggressions in mostly White and male dominated fields like the STEM workforce, that has also been known to be a hostile work environment for women of color (Funk & Parker, 2018). While prior research links workplace discrimination to negative work and health related outcomes, research remains limited in their ability to address the simultaneous experience of racism and sexism for Asian American women. The study employs a theory of racialized organizations to investigate gendered racial microaggressions as a mechanism that maintains gender and racial inequities in the STEM workforce, making Asian American women especially vulnerable to institutionalized inequities (Ray, 2019). This study used the Gendered Racial Microaggressions Scale for Asian American Women (GRMSAAW; Keum et al., 2018) to advance research that investigates how Asian American women experiences of gendered racial microaggressions may increase their job-related burnout and psychological distress. The study aims to: (1) determine if gendered racial microaggressions among Asian American women is associated with job-related burnout and psychological distress, (2) assess whether the relationship between gendered racial microaggressions and job-related burnout and gendered racial microaggressions and psychological distress are mediated by perceived exploitation, and (3) investigate diversity climate as a potential buffer against the negative effects of gendered racial microaggressions on job-related burnout as well gendered racial microaggressions on psychological distress. The results of the study extend our understanding of how gendered racial microaggressions may pose a unique risk to Asian American women and the work and mental health disparities they face in the STEM workforce. Findings indicated that gendered racial microaggression stress was significantly associated with job-related burnout and psychological distress. Further, perceived exploitation was found to mediate the associations between gendered racial microaggression stress and job-related burnout and gendered racial microaggression stress and psychological distress. Lastly, diversity climate perceptions were not a significant buffer against job-related burnout or psychological distress associated with gendered racial microaggression stress. However, perceived diversity climate was shown to moderate the association between perceived exploitation and job-related burnout. Specifically, at low levels of perceived exploitation, Asian American women that perceived high levels of diversity climate experienced low levels of job-related burnout. At high levels of perceived exploitation, Asian American women experienced similar levels of burnout across all levels of diversity climate. These findings have important implications for future organizational research, policies and practices aimed to address Asian American women’s experiences of gendered racial microaggressions, perceived exploitation and diversity climate perceptions in the STEM workplace.

Domestic work is an indispensable part of American life. Domestic workers provide childcare, homecare, and housecleaning services to support families, individuals, older adults, and people with illnesses or disabilities. Essential to the functioning of our economy and a more caring and sustainable future, domestic workers ensure our children, aging grandparents, and loved ones who are managing chronic illnesses or disabilities receive the assistance they need to live healthy and dignified lives. However, this work remains largely excluded from basic employment protections and benefits that can ensure the health and safety of domestic workers.

This report is part of a series of UCLA Labor Center studies that capture the experience of workers and employers in the domestic work sector. This industry lacks the structure common to others, and the resulting absence of regular and predictable practices leads to wide variations in work and pay arrangements. Studies have shown that domestic workers also experience wage theft, health and safety violations, and harassment. A recent survey of domestic workers found workplace risks similar to those of nurses in hospital or cleaners in commercial buildings. Unlike other low-wage industries, domestic work is hidden behind closed doors and lacks government oversight or support. In addition, household employers often do not consider themselves as such or see their homes as workplaces.

Based on our analysis of government data from the most recent 5-year sample (2014– 2018) of the American Community Survey (ACS), this research brief provides a profile of domestic workers in California—who they are, where they live and work, and the economic vulnerabilities they face due to their employment status, low wages, and lack of benefits.

Culture-bound syndromes have proven to be significant indicators for social and psychiatric vulnerability for specific racial/ethnic minorities. However, the diagnostic criteria for these syndromes often fail to adequately address important historical and social circumstances that influence immigrant health. While culture plays a significant role in influencing the etiology and the symptom expression of certain disorders, the immigrant context is also an important indicator of mental health outcomes. In particular, factors such as English proficiency, generational status, and age at time of immigration can influence how they experience and express mental illness. The present study used logistic regression to assess the relationships among ethnicity and immigration-integration characteristics on the outcome of culture-bound syndromes from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS, n = 4528). Differences in racial/ethnic groups and immigration-integration factors were found. Compared to Filipinos and other Asians, Latinos had higher odds of reporting ataques de nervios. There were associations between ataques de nervios with age of immigration, generation, and English proficiency. Further, there was effect modification between English proficiency and ethnicity: Filipinos with limited English proficiency were associated with greater odds of reporting ataques de nervios as compared to Latinos and other Asians. Filipinos with excellent or good English proficiency were associated with decreased odds of reporting ataques de nervios as compared to Latinos and other Asians. The Latinos in our sample demonstrated an inverse relationship to Filipinos in their reports of ataques de nervios, while all other Asians reported similar levels of ataques de nervios at both levels of English proficiency. Culture-bound syndromes can serve as helpful indicators for identifying mental health needs in marginalized populations, but should be considered in the context of important historical, cultural, and social factors.

Presently, over 700,000 Californian workers — primarily immigrant women and women of color — provide homecare for nearly three million older adults and people with disabilities. Researchers examined homecare in California by surveying 500 workers and 103 consumers, conducting in-depth interviews with workers and consumers, and reviewing homecare agencies and residential facilities for the elderly.

Lives & Livelihoods: California’s Private Homecare Industry in Crisis finds that the California homecare industry is facing critical issues that strain workers and consumers alike, amid growing demand that further intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other findings, the report notes how the lack of infrastructure in homecare leaves both consumers and workers struggling. Over half of consumers determined employment terms on their own or turned to their friends and family for guidance. Only 22% of workers reported ever taking paid sick leave. Nearly two-thirds of homecare workers did not earn enough to cover their daily expenses and 74% reported they did not have any type of personal retirement savings.

Many families need financial support through public investment in order to pay their homecare workers a living wage. Three quarters of consumers stated they would like to pay higher wages and 85% of consumers strongly supported a universal long-term care insurance program in California.

Meaningful and timely public investment in the state’s homecare workforce and infrastructure is imperative to the sustainability of the industry over the next decade and beyond. Report authors provide the following recommendations: 1) Make it easier for consumers to find care and workers to find fair employers 2) Formalize the industry and make workers rights real through education, tools, and increased enforcement efforts 3) Address the crisis of low wages, and 4) Increase public investment in long-term care to help consumers access and afford homecare and other long-term care.

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Today, over half of college students work. Their experiences as workers and learners are impacted by increasing college costs and often exorbitant living expenses, and compounded by low wages. Meanwhile, state funding for public institutions has decreased dramatically: in 2017, it was nearly $9 billion less than in 2008. Tuition and fees have increased across every institution of public higher education in California. Financial aid rarely covers the educational expenses of workers and learners, and students generally face an acute funding gap. Workers and learners are concentrated in the low-wage service economy, and nine out of 10 worked more than 15 hours a week. Many simply lack the resources to pay for their tuition and fees, books, other necessary supplies, housing, and utilities.

Yet this emerging reality has not produced a systematic infrastructure that might provide support and necessary accommodations for workers and learners. In fact, their schoolwork and engagement with academic opportunities suffers for their work commitments, and they are often penalized at work for attempting to meet their scholarly obligations and schedules.

This report explores how workers and learners in Los Angeles’ public colleges and universities experience the competing demands of school and the workplace as they prepare for careers. We used a participatory and research justice approach, and worked with students, workers, and community partners to collect and analyze the data.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges have rapidly transitioned from in-person classes to remote learning, dramatically changing the way students receive instruction. At the same time, students who work are also facing unemployment or reduced hours. Most of those who were not laid off are working in frontline positions in essential services. Compounding those challenges are government policies that prohibit many college students and certain lowwage workers from accessing economic relief benefits.

This study supplements the report Unseen Costs: The Experiences of Workers and Learners in Los Angeles County with new data on the effects of the pandemic on this population. Based on 236 surveys collected from Los Angeles public colleges and universities in April and May 2020, this study builds on existing knowledge concerning the experiences of workers and learners by documenting how their academic, employment, and life experiences have changed since the onset of the global health crisis.

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