The Pew Hispanic Center announced today the results of a new analysis of Census Bureau data which shows that foreign-born Latinos moved up from the lower end of the spectrum and closer to the middle with regard to wages in the period from 1995-2005:

Foreign-born Latino workers made notable progress between 1995 and 2005 when ranked by hourly wage. The proportion of foreign-born Latino workers in the lowest quintile of the wage distribution decreased to 36% from 42% while many workers moved into the middle quintiles, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Newly arrived Hispanic workers also were much less likely to be low-wage earners in 2005 than in 1995, in part because they were older, better educated and more likely to be employed in construction than in agriculture. Yet despite the clear movement into the middle range of the wage distribution, many foreign-born Latinos remain low-wage earners. Even though the share of Latino workers at the low end decreased, in absolute numbers this population grew by 1.2 million between 1995 and 2005.

The Pew analysis also found that as Latinos moved out of the low end into the middles, many foreign-born Asians moved into the high end of the wage earning scale.

Via / Pew Hispanic Center