Higher Degrees
The number of Hispanic women with college degrees has doubled in the past 10 years to 4.8 million, increasing their ability to engage with the workforce. Enrollment data shows a significant portion of Latinas remain enrolled in school after age 21, suggesting they are pursuing graduate degrees, or juggling school with work and family support.
The U.S. needs immigration to supplement its labor pool if policy makers desire higher economic potential over time. While the immigrant share of the U.S. population is just below historic highs set more than a century ago, some estimates of unauthorized immigration are declining. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told lawmakers last month that immigration is a “key input” to higher rates of growth.
“Without immigrants, and their children, our labor force would actually shrink,” says Randy Capps, director of U.S. research at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.
Wage Gap
Despite both labor market and educational gains by Hispanic women, their median weekly earnings -- at $661 -- lags other groups.
Marie Mora, a labor economist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, says the wage gap could stem from a variety of causes. The Hispanic population tends to be younger and earlier in their careers, and there is a “disproportionate representation” of Latinas in service jobs, which tend to be low paying. A third cause could be bias, she says.
“We would expect that if you had a more educated group you would see some of these gaps narrow,” Mora says.
Barriers to work often give rise to business ownership and entrepreneurship in the Hispanic community. Mora says her research finds that a lot of Hispanic small business growth is driven by women, particularly immigrants. Entrepreneurship has helped bolster employment, but may not close the wage gap if it stems from being locked out of other forms of work, Mora says.
Female Entrepreneurs