The Layered Discrimination AAPI Workers Face-and How to Fight Back

When we talk about discrimination in the workplace, and this month specifically towards AAPI employees, conversations often center on race and ethnicity-and rightly so! For many Asian American and Pacific Islander workers though, the full picture of what they endure on the job is far more complex. This year, we want to delve deeper on what that bigger picture looks like.

If you are an AAPI worker who has been passed over for a promotion, pushed out of an accommodation request, been penalized for your age, or paid less than your peers, you may have a legal claim that goes beyond racial discrimination alone. The concept of intersectionality may be stronger than you think- that being, the way multiple identities layer and compound into a shared, unique experience.

The Model Minority Myth Is Actively Harming AAPI Workers

Before we can discuss your legal options, we have to name the barrier that keeps many AAPI employees from ever raising their hand: the model minority stereotype.

According to the Columbia University Libraries, the model minority myth perpetuates the belief that all AAPI individuals have succeeded in their careers compared to other minorities due to their individual explanations of merit, such as their work ethic and persistence in achievement for success. This effectively erases both individual and group differences-including vast disparities in pay, educational attainment, and access to healthcare. It also obscures the realities of continued discrimination in America, such as the uptick in violence directed towards them during the COVID-19 epidemic.

This myth doesn’t protect AAPI workers. It silences them. It makes them feel as though discrimination isn’t happening to them-or won’t be believed.

Ageism: Are Older AAPI Workers Being Pushed Out?

Is there discrimination against older AAPI workers? The data says yes-at alarming rates.

A 2025 AARP report found that 63% of AAPI older workers reported experiencing age discrimination in the workplace. Critically, nearly one in three said they felt they were being actively pushed out of their jobs because of their age.

Subtle forms of age discrimination are heavily experienced by AAPI workers as well. These forms include when older workers are assumed to be less tech savvy because of their age, being resistant to change, not acknowledging older workers’ accomplishments or expertise, and giving preference to younger employees. Of those surveyed, 64% of workers are AAPI.

Ageism against AAPI workers often looks invisible from the outside. It shows up as reassignment of responsibilities, exclusion from high-visibility projects, a sudden stream of negative performance reviews, or a demotion with no clear justification. When implicit bias shapes these decisions-and when your employer knows it-that constitutes actionable age discrimination under both federal law (the ADEA) and New York State and City law, which offer among the strongest worker protections in the country.

If you are an AAPI worker over 40 who has experienced any of these patterns, a New York racial discrimination lawyer experienced in intersectional claims can evaluate your full situation.

The Gender Wage Gap Hits AAPI Women Differently

The intersection of ethnicity discrimination and gender in pay inequality is devastating for many AAPI women. The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) has documented that the gender wage gap costs many AAPI women hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost lifetime earnings. The gap mentioned is that AAPI women are paid just 85 cents to the dollar that white, non-Hispanic men are paid, which leads to an $800 monthly deficit, a $10,000 annual deficit, and a $400,000 deficit over a forty-year career. AAPI women would have to work more than 14 months to match what their male, white and non-Hispanic counterparts.

Can you sue for being passed over for a promotion? In New York, yes-if there is evidence that race, national origin, gender, age, or disability (alone or in combination) played a role in the decision. A pattern of being overlooked for advancement, receiving lower ratings than similarly situated non-AAPI colleagues, or being steered away from leadership roles can all support a claim.

“Invisible” Disabilities and the AAPI Experience

Disability discrimination often goes unrecognized in AAPI communities, in part because the model minority myth makes it harder to self-identify as disabled or to request accommodations. The Cut Fruit Collective, an AAPI mental health advocacy organization, notes that this harmful stereotype is especially destructive for disabled AAPI workers, many of whom are made to feel invisible or ignored-and face added cultural pressures to conform and assimilate to the minority myth, rather than disclose a disability.

Mental health conditions, chronic illness, and other non-apparent disabilities are fully protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the New York City Human Rights Law. If you requested an accommodation and were subsequently demoted, excluded, or subjected to a hostile work environment, you may have grounds for a disability discrimination and retaliation claim.

Can I Prove Discrimination in My Performance Reviews?

Performance reviews are frequently the mechanism through which layered AAPI workplace discrimination is disguised as legitimate business judgment.

Two legal theories are particularly relevant here:

Disparate impact is when a facially neutral policy or evaluation system produces outcomes that disproportionately harm a protected group is actionable even without proof of intentional bias. As researchers at the University of Colorado Law Review have noted, algorithmic and AI-driven performance tools can encode existing workplace biases and produce discriminatory outcomes without a single overtly biased decision.

Second, where an employer uses algorithmic discrimination in evaluations or promotion decisions, those tools remain subject to Title VII and New York State law.

Documentation is key. Emails, performance review copies, video and audio recordings, comparisons to colleagues, and a timeline of events can all help build your case.

Call a New York Employment Law Attorney Now

At Filippatos PLLC, our team of experienced New York racial discrimination lawyers understands that your workplace experience doesn’t fit into a single checkbox. We approach each case by exploring every angle-age, gender, disability, ethnicity, retaliation, and more-because that is how we secure the strongest possible outcome for you.

If any part of this resonates with your experience at work, you don’t have to figure out the legal theory on your own. That’s what we’re here for.

Call us at 888-9-JOBLAW or contact us online to schedule a confidential consultation. Together, we win.