In California, Latinas face the steepest wage gap

California advocates for working Latinas are trying to raise awareness of the pay wage gap encountered by Latinas.

California Latinas account for about 20% of the state population and face the most significant wage gap in the country, equal pay advocates said. Latina Equal Pay Day was Thursday.

A 2020 report by the Los Angeles nonprofit, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality, found Latinas in California earn 43 cents for every dollar made by a non-Latino White man.

Nationwide, Latinas earn an average of 57 cents an hour for every dollar a White man earns, signifying that Latinas would have to work until the age of 116 to earn what White men make by the time they turn 60, according to a fact sheet released by the group.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, said the problem continues to be largely underrecognized by policymakers today.

“We’re banging the drum some more. I don’t think most people in California or in the nation understand that Latinas are the most underpaid,” she said. “Until people realize that’s a fact, there won’t be, I think, the initiative and political drive to change it.”

It’s why Gonzalez launched the Unseen Latinas Initiative under the California Latino Legislative Caucus last year to bring light to the economic inequities facing Latina women. Some of the initiative’s meetings so far have focused on the representation of Latinas in the law field and how the pandemic has impacted Latina service workers.

Gonzalez said it’s critical for policymakers to come up with specific programs and policy changes that uplift Latina workers, whom she refers to as the “most underrepresented and underappreciated” demographic in California.

“Before you can even demand that things change specifically for Latinas, people have to understand the depth of the issue,” she said.

From Latinas working in low-wage service sectors to Latina surgeons, Gonzalez said, “This is an issue that is prevalent in every industry.”

Maya Gomez-O’Cadiz, HOPE’s director of communications and research, agrees.

Citing the HOPE report, O’Cadiz added that the earnings of Latinas working in the Silicon Valley region and Los Angeles were much lower than the rest of the state.

In 2018, Latinas in those areas earned 33.5 cents and 38.2 cents for every dollar earned by a White man, respectively.

“There’s an assumption that Latinas work in lowerpaying industries, and that’s a big reason why the wage gap is so big,” GomezO’Cadiz said. “Even in highpaying industries, even for the same work, Latinas are still paid less.”

Their research also found that 68% of California Latinas reported feeling concerned about being denied jobs or housing because pf their race or ethnicity and 30% have faced discrimination in the workplace by a colleague, client or supervisor.

“To close the Latina pay gap, we must address discrimination. Every part of society can play a role by acknowledging that it exists and rooting it out through policies that provide transparency and accountability,” said Helen Torres, CEO of HOPE.