Hispanic women contributed $1.3 trillion to U.S. gross domestic product in 2021, up from $661 billion in 2010, nearly three times the growth rate of non-Hispanic groups during the same period, according to a new report funded by Bank of America and conducted by professors at California Lutheran University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The report was compiled by compiling publicly available economic and demographic data from federal agencies and shows that “Latinas are drivers of economic vitality in the United States,” said economist Matthew Fienup, one of the study’s authors and executive director of the Center for Economic Research and Prospecting at California Lutheran University, in a Zoom conference to present the report’s findings.
“Latina women outperform their ethnic and gender peers on key economic metrics, including record levels of labor force participation, educational attainment and income growth,” she added in a press release.
The $1.3 trillion economic contribution from Latinas is comparable to the GDP of Florida, and only surpassed by those of California, Texas and New York, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Fienup says Latinas’ increased economic output and growth in the labor force—nine times faster than non-Latino groups—is reflected in higher incomes and economic mobility.
“We are moving in the right direction. And that wage gap is narrowing, even though Latinas face certain disadvantages compared to non-Latinos in the United States,” Fienup said, adding that Latinas are moving faster than other groups in terms of investing in starting their own businesses and buying homes, despite having less access to capital.
Overall, women have made notable gains in representation in high-ranking positions and high-revenue industries. But the narrowing of the wage gap has stagnated for nearly 20 years, even for Latinas. Latina and black workers experience the largest wage gap of any group.
Titled “Bringing the Economy to Life,” the new study builds on six previous reports on Latino contributions to U.S. GDP conducted in collaboration with Bank of America to examine the growing economic contributions of Latinos living in the United States.
There are several factors behind the accelerated economic growth for Latinas, according to David Hayes-Bautista, one of the report’s co-authors and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the UCLA School of Medicine.
“Older Latina immigrants are starting to age out of the workforce, and their U.S.-born daughters and granddaughters are filling their shoes,” Hayes Bautista explained in Monday’s Zoom session. Today, Latinas are entering the workforce as bilingual, functional professionals with much higher levels of education than their predecessors, creating a ripple effect, she added.
“These daughters and granddaughters of immigrants are combining the extraordinary and selfless work ethic of their ancestors with rapidly growing human capital,” he said.
