Blitz Bureau
Latinas contributed $1.3 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product in 2021, up from $661 billion in 2010 and at a growth rate nearly triple that of non-Latinos during the same time period, according to a new report funded by Bank of America and conducted by professors at California Lutheran University and UCLA, says a report by Associated Press.
The report was compiled using publicly available economic and demographic data from U.S. agencies and shows “that Latinas are drivers of economic vitality in the United States, giving life to the U.S.
economy,” said economist Matthew Fienup, one of the study’s authors and executive director of California Lutheran University’s Center for Economic Research & Forecasting during a Zoom briefing presenting the findings on August 26.
“Latinas outpace their gender and ethnic peers in key economic measures, including record levels of Latina workforce participation, educational attainment, and income growth,” he added in a press release.
Equals Florida GDP
The $1.3 trillion economic contribution by Latinas is about as much as the GDP of Florida, and only surpassed by California, Texas and New York, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Women overall have made vast gains in C-suite and high-earning industry representation. But wage gap improvement has stalled for about 20 years, including for Latinas. Black and Latina workers experience the largest pay gap of any group.
Several factors are behind Latinas’ fast-paced economic growth, according to David Hayes-Bautista, a report co-author and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA’s School of Medicine.
“Older immigrant Latinas are starting to age out of the workforce, and their shoes are being filled by their U.S.-born daughters and granddaughters,” Hayes-Bautista explained during a Zoom briefing on August 26.
Better educated
Latina workers are entering the workforce as functionally bilingual professionals with higher levels of education, he added.
