The future of the U.S. is linked to the education, health and economic well-being of Latinas, concludes a study conducted by the American Association of University Women (AAUW).
Their growing presence will continue to change demographics, drive the economy and change future elections.
But even though their contributions drive the national economy, many see little return for their work. More than half of Latinas are second-, third- and fourth-generation Americans, but deep-seated structural inequalities in education, health and economics limit Latinas' ability to build generational wealth, the text stresses.
More and more Latinas are graduating from high school and college, but are still being denied access to high quality educational opportunities.
Latinos as a whole contributed $2.6 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2019, but Latinas earn 55 cents for every dollar earned by non-Hispanic white men.
COVID-19 has had a particularly devastating impact on Latinas: 21 percent lost their jobs in the early days of the pandemic; nearly a quarter of them lack health insurance and only 16 percent have the opportunity to work from home.
COVID-19 and its impact on Latinas
The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially difficult for Latinas. In addition to caregiving obligations that have led them to leave the labor force three times more than non-Hispanic white women, they are more likely to lose their jobs and less likely to receive unemployment insurance, the study notes.
Nearly 3 in 10 (28.3 percent) work in a front-line job.
Between February and May 2020, Latinas suffered a larger drop in employment than any other group of men or women. Twenty-one percent lost their jobs during this period, compared to 15 percent of Latino men, 13 percent of non-Hispanic white women, and 9 percent of non-Hispanic white men.
In January 2021, there were still 633,000 fewer Latinas in the labor force than in February 2019, compared to 241,000 fewer Latino men.
The study also highlights that Latinas are more likely to be unemployed because they are overrepresented in the service, hospitality and leisure sectors that were devastated by COVID-19, while undocumented persons, including Latinas, have suffered even more than those who are U.S. citizens.
Undocumented Latinas worked during the pandemic, most often as essential workers. However, the federal government's Coronavirus Economic Security and Relief Act of 2020 - the CARES Act - excluded undocumented immigrants, denying these taxpayers access to unemployment insurance and cash benefits.
And in mixed-status families, having an undocumented person file a tax return along with a citizen or legal resident spouse resulted in disqualification of the entire family from receiving cash assistance.
In March 2021, Latinos had a 3.1 times higher rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations than non-Hispanic white Americans and a 2.3 times higher rate of COVID-19 deaths.
California and Texas have the largest Latino populations, with 7.7 million and 5.7 million Latinas, respectively. Florida, New York, Arizona and Illinois each have more than one million Latinas. Together, these six states are home to 68.2 percent of all Latinas living in the United States.
The vast majority of Latinas in the U.S. are of Mexican origin (62 percent). The remainder of the population is of Puerto Rican (8.7 percent), Cuban (4.1 percent), Central American (8.9 percent), South American (6.8 percent) or other Latino origin (9.5 percent).
Latinas are young: 34 percent are between the ages of 0 and 19, compared to 20 percent of non-Hispanic white women. Only 9 percent of Latinas are of retirement age, compared to 22 percent of non-Hispanic white women.
It is estimated that 27 percent of all women in the United States will be Latinas by 2060.
Education and Latinas
Latinas have made significant gains in educational attainment over the past two decades. This development is promising because, in general, higher education correlates with both higher earnings and lower unemployment. However, this progress comes with caveats: Latino women's graduation rates still lag behind those of other demographic groups, and college education is not a panacea when it comes to fair wages.
Latinas have the highest high school dropout rate of all races/ethnicities of women except American Indian/Alaska Native women. Between 2000 and 2019, the proportion of Latinas age 25 and older who had earned a high school diploma or higher increased by 26.6 percent.
Meanwhile, between 2000 and 2019, the proportion of Latinas aged 25 and older who earned a bachelor's or higher degree nearly doubled.
Thus, in 2019, more than 1.1 million Latinas (5.7 percent) had advanced degrees.
While educational attainment reduces the wage gap, Latinas with higher degrees still earn less than non-Hispanic white men with bachelor's degrees, so it is clear that education is not a panacea for structural inequality.
Labor participation and gender wage gap
Latinas in the U.S. are relatively young and are joining the labor force in increasing numbers, traits that can help counteract the broader outflow of women and girls. baby boomers of the labor force.
However, discrimination and prejudice based on race, ethnicity, gender and immigration status have intersected to drive them into occupations with lower and fairer wages for their work, the analysis stresses.
Over the past two decades, Latina labor force participation has increased slowly but steadily, from 55.9 percent in 1999 to 57.7 percent in 2019.
Since 2007, the number of Latina small business owners has increased faster than any other racial or ethnic segment, representing a 172 percent growth rate. The 400 Latina-owned businesses launched daily generate $97 billion a year.
In 2019, Latinas earned an average of $32,470, only 55 percent of what non-Hispanic white men earned and 81 percent of what Latinos earned. At the current rate of change, the wage gap between Latinas and non-Hispanic white men will not close until 2451.
"Low wages, combined with the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, have further exposed the economic vulnerability of women in low-wage, service-related occupations. Women, and Latinas in particular, have experienced the greatest job losses, a fact that is likely to widen the wage gap in the future, the document states.
Part of this wage gap is due to occupational segregation.
Latinas are overrepresented in low-paying service occupations: they are twice as likely to work in these types of jobs as non-Hispanic white women.
In addition, they are underrepresented in high-paying management, business and financial operations occupations, with one in five white women working in these occupations compared to nearly one in eight Latinas.
Although rates have declined, a significant number of Latinas and their families are economically insecure and disproportionately affected by poverty. In 2018, 18 percent of them were living in poverty.
Latinas suffered huge job losses since the beginning of the pandemic. One in five Latinas (20.2 percent) was unemployed in April 2020. Although unemployment rates have declined since then, Latinas still had an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent in March 2021.
It is worth noting that Latinas are more likely to work in jobs with irregular schedules and reduced hours.
Access to health care
Latinas are more likely to be uninsured than women in almost any other demographic group.
Immigration status also affects Latinas' access to employer-sponsored health insurance. U.S.-born Latina mothers were more likely - 56 percent - to have access to employer-sponsored health insurance, compared with 42 percent of foreign-born Latina mothers.
Political participation
With their steadily increasing population and rising voter turnout rates, Latinas have become a powerful voting group.
As of 2019, 79.3 percent of those living in the U.S. are U.S. citizens.
Indeed, the number of Latino voters will increase dramatically in the coming decades. One million Latin Americans will turn 18 every year for at least the next two decades, and 94 percent of Latinos 18 and younger were born in the United States.
Latinas turn out in greater numbers than their male counterparts at the polls: 50 percent of eligible Latinas voted in the 2016 midterm elections, compared to 45 percent of eligible Latinos.
Latinas outvote Latinos for Democratic candidates, a preference that was evident in several swing states in the 2020 presidential election.
Voto Latino polls found that Latinas are more likely to support candidates who call for equal pay, college affordability, paid "requested time off" and reproductive rights.
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