Career Services

Latinas and Their Families Can't Afford Unequal Pay for Equal Work

Latinas are a growing and influential constituency in the United States.  The Latina share of the female population in the United States will increase from 16.4 percent today to 25.7 percent in 2050.  Lantinas are making significant strides in education, participation, health, and other areas, but there is a long way to go to fully close racial and enthnic disaprities.  The Fact Sheet: The State of Latinas in the United States,  provides a snapshot of statistics about health , education, entrepreneurship, economic security, and political leadership that should guide our choices to enact sensible policies to unleash the potential of this growing demographic and benefit our economy.  You can learn more about this Fact Sheet from the Center for American Progress.

The following Department of Labor blog post, Latinas and their Families Can't Afford Unequal Pay for Equal Work, is authored by Elianne Ramos, principal and chief executive  officer of Speak Hispanic Communications.

Editor’s note: The following guest blog post is authored by Elianne Ramos, principal and chief executive officer of Speak Hispanic Communications. During Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, we will run a series of blog posts related to how we can help expand opportunity for more people in America. For real-time updates in Spanish, follow the department on Twitter and Facebook.

For all the talk about Latinas’ strides in terms of earning college degrees, political participation, small business ownership and the all-time marketing favorite, “spending power,” there is a dark piece of reality that needs to be confronted, discussed and acted upon: The fact that when it comes to pay equality, we seem to be perennially stuck at the bottom of the barrel.

National gender gap figures, with women who work full time paid just 77 cents for every dollar a man with the same experience and education profile makes, are deplorable in and of themselves. Yet for Latinas, the gap is even wider. In fact, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families(NPWF), in 2013 we made a whopping 55 cents to every dollar a white male makes last year — the lowest amount of any other ethnic group of women. The median salary for Latinas is $29,020 per year, compared to a median salary of $48,202 for all men – or a difference of $19,182 per year.

While many cite education as the decisive factor, that’s not entirely true: Latinas are still underpaid even when they have the same experience and educational background. The reality is, many other factors also contribute to the dismal wage level of many of ourmujeres. These factors range from language and immigration status and the kind of jobs to which these afford access, to obligations imposed on gender by remnants of machismo within our culture, to overt and implicit workplace discrimination.

The consequences of the disparity are adverse and long lasting for all Latinas, but especially so for the more than 2 million Latino families who rely on women as the main breadwinners. When you factor in a family’s living expenses, food, and other basic needs, the result is an alarming amount of single parent Latino households living paycheck-to-paycheck, barely making ends meet. Childcare costs alone could range between $3,582 and $18,773 a year ($300 to $1,564 a month!) depending on where you live, according to the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA).

Over the short term, less income for Latina heads of household means less money for groceries, less money saved for college savings, less money for an emergency fund. Over time, however, the damage reaches the hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost wages. This translates into lower educational opportunities for these women and their children, abandonment of the work force due to an inability to afford care giving costs for children and aging parents, as well as significantly smaller retirement funds, among many other blocks to potential wealth. The resulting vicious cycle of poverty is one that few in our community are able to overcome, let alone escape.

The elimination of the wage gap, on the other hand, would make a crucial and positive difference in the lives of millions of Latinas and by extension, that of their families. As the NPWF report shows, a Latina working full time, year-round, for example, would have enough money to cover:

  • Nearly THREE years’ worth of food
  • Nearly TWO years of rent
  • Almost FIVE more years’ worth of family health insurance premiums
  • 5,743 additional gallons of gas

As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, I urge Latinas and Latinos to pay attention to the wage gap debate, learn how equal pay would benefit our families, and speak up. It’s time to become aware, vocal and civically engaged to ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, race or ethnicity is compensated equally for doing the same job. One way can do this by registering to vote and supporting national, state and local policies and candidates in favor of ending the wage gap, and holding them accountable for their promises to do so. We must stand up together and demand equality for Latinas – for all – because in the end, folks, no one will do it for us.

Attaining wage equality is at the heart of economic empowerment, which has a direct impact on our community’s future educational, social and political prospects in this country. In other words: When Latinas succeed, our families succeed… and America succeeds.