Bloomberg Línea — The wage gap between Latinos in the US and White, non-Hispanic widens even further if the comparison is limited to women only. According to the National Women’s Law Center, Latinas have to work twice as hard to receive the pay of a non-Hispanic White worker for the same type of work. In other words, what a white man earns in 12 months will take a Latina woman 24 months.
The most recent data are from 2021 and indicate that Latinas working full time year-round were paid only 57 cents for every dollar earned by non-Hispanic White men. Thus, women miss out on $2,477 per month.
However, this estimate does not include those women who were unemployed or working part-time during the past year, many of which were affected by the pandemic and the subsequent loss of thousands of jobs.
According to the survey, the unemployment rate for Latinas aged 20 and older reached 20.1% in April 2020 and was in double digits for six months in 2020. Thus, the labor force participation rate for Latinas remains below pre-pandemic levels.
Nearly one in five unemployed Latinas (19.1%) have been unemployed for six months or more, and more than one in eight Latinas who work part-time (12.9%) do so involuntarily, because they are unable to work full-time.
Latino disparity
In addition to this situation, there is a more worrisome disparity among Latinas according to their origin.
For example, Honduran women earn $0.44, Guatemalan women $0.47 and Salvadoran women earn US$0.49 for every dollar paid to non-Hispanic White men.Among the most “favored” are Argentine and Spanish women, with $0.82 in earnings for every dollar earned by a non-Hispanic White man, while Chilean women earn $0.75.
The Justice for Women agency indicates that non-Hispanic White men who work full- and part-time earn an average of $50,624 per year, while Latinas who work full- and part-time earn an average of $25,312.
