Latinas contributed $1.3 trillion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2021, up from $6.61 billion in 2010 and nearly three times the growth rate of non-Latinos over the same period, according to a new report funded by Bank of America and conducted by professors at California Lutheran University and UCLA.
The report was compiled using economic and demographic data made publicly available by U.S. agencies and shows “that Latinas are drivers of economic vitality in the United States, giving life to the American economy,” said economist Matthew Fienup, one of the study’s authors and executive director of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at California Lutheran University, in a Monday Zoom briefing to present the study’s findings.
“Latinas outperformed their gender and ethnic peers on key economic measures, including record levels of Latina labor force participation, educational attainment and income growth,” she added in a press release.
The $1.3 trillion economic contribution made by Latinas is almost as much as the GDP of Florida, surpassed only by California, Texas and New York, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Fienup noted that Latinas’ increased economic performance and labor force growth—nine times faster than non-Latinos—translates into higher incomes and economic mobility for Latinas.
“We are moving in the right direction. And that wage gap is closing even though Latinas face certain disadvantages relative to non-Latinos in the United States,” Fienup said, adding that Latinas outperform other groups when it comes to investing in businesses and homeownership, despite having less access to capital.
Overall, women have made significant gains in their representation in corporate leadership and high-income industries. But improvement in the wage gap has been stagnant for nearly 20 years, even for Latinas. Black and Latina workers experience the largest wage gap of any group.
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