Latinos Are The Engine That Drives America's Economy

Latinos Are The Engine That Drives America’s Economy

Episode Description:

For today’s episode, we’re going to be going over some stats from the 2020 U.S. Census as well as data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows the average monthly income of a Hispanic worker and some other important relevant data.

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Hey, it’s Kevin here. I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of my weekly listeners. I know this episode was delayed, and I really appreciate your patience. It always makes me smile when I see that the episode has already gotten some plays when I wake up the morning after it’s been uploaded. You all make my Monday better. Thank you!

I just wanted to update you all and let you guys know that the reason why the episode was delayed a week was due to a medical emergency in my family. I’m glad to say that my family is doing better now and we’re back on track. I had everything ready to go for recording and unfortunately as many of you might know life sometimes loves to interrupt our everyday routine. We come to find out that things won’t always work out the way we might want them to and In my opinion, these sudden interruptions can either make or break us.

Before I started viewing life differently and shifting my mindset I used to get angry and sad at these interruptions because it seemed like they were happening far too often in my life that I started to feel like I was stuck in life not able to move forward because something always came up that interrupted my plans and so I became frustrated, angry, asking why does this have to happen to me? especially since I personally like to be in control and don’t really like surprises, but you know what…?

One day I realized that I am still in control, that yes while I can’t control outside forces like someone getting sick, or someone hitting my car, what I can control is how I react to it, I can control how I choose to let it impact me mentally and how much It’s going to disrupt my life. Especially being a DACA recipient and immigrant right, we never know what could come tomorrow, for all we know one day we could wake up without status in this country, and that I can’t control.

But what I can control is how I choose to live my life right? Everything’s perspective and my perspective is that I don’t need status in one country to live my life to the fullest. I am equipped with the tools that I need to succeed and no one can take that from me. This is why when life gets in the way I prefer to learn from it and view it as an experience rather than let it consume me and be resentful and close myself off to all that life has to offer because if you live your life viewing everything as an experience…well then we’re constantly growing as humans right? Because we simply cannot develop as humans without experience, the only way to grow is through pain, through learning, and through struggles, as well as through love, happiness, and pleasure.

So with all that said, I send much love to all of you and I always appreciate every single one of you for taking the time to tune into the podcast. It really means a lot. I always look forward to putting out new content for you all so I hope you enjoy today’s episode!

[Cue intro music]

What is going on everyone? This is the LEO podcast… where we talk about various educational topics… especially those impacting the Latin American community.

Because honestly, sometimes we just need to be reminded that we are the shit and that all of us in this country contribute to its economic success. The Latino market measured in GDP is literally in the trillions. A GDP that by the way is growing at 8.6 percent faster than China, faster than India, and nobody is talking about it!

So that’s the goal for today’s episode. To remind us that we are an important and valuable part of this country and that our contributions should be recognized.

If you’re listening to this episode on the day that it’s released, then that means today is Monday, October tenth. And if you want early access to episodes and bonus content, then head over to our patreon.com/latinamericaneo and become part of our Palomitas community!

But if you’re not a patron yet, no worries! You can still enjoy this episode. It’s packed with great content.

So, sit back, relax, and enjoy!

[End intro music]

Topic 1:

In case you’re not aware, the Hispanic community in The United States is actually one of the groups with the highest population growth. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s look over the 2020 United States Census.

The total population living in this country in 2020 was 333 million inhabitants, of those 333, 62 million are people of Latino origin, which if you do that math is equivalent to 18.7% of the total American population!

And if you’re curious, the top 3 states where we can mostly be found are New Mexico coming in at number 1 with 47.7%, California taking second place with 39.4% and finally Texas coming in at 39.3%. Did the top three surprise you at all? Was it what you expected? Let me know I would love to hear from you!

Now if we decide to take this deeper and convert it to work, well then we would represent 17.3% of the workforce in the United States which by the way is estimated to increase to 30% by 2060. And if you’re curious, the workforce is distributed in different areas ranging from things like financial activities, construction, agriculture, fishing, hotels, bars, restaurants, etc… you get the point.

Hispanic Monthly Income

Now when it comes to our monthly income, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average monthly earnings of full-time Hispanic workers is around three thousand four hundred and forty-eight dollars. But of course, these wage rates do vary depending on things like the type of job, the states and cities where we live, and how much each state spends on average.

Take the state of California as an example. In California, the average annual salary may be slightly higher, but the cost of living is also much higher.

The pay gap

And of course, we can’t talk about pay without talking about the pay gap. Over the years, Hispanics have been growing and each generation is overcoming obstacles, but there is something that still keeps us at a disadvantage to this day…and that is none other than the wage gap. Did you know that US-born Latinos enjoy higher wages than foreign-born Latinos but BOTH groups are still below the average salary of a white American? This means that a Latino American earns only 73 cents for every dollar a white American receives. So yea…let that one sink in for a bit.

Education as a factor of economic growth

There are also other factors that we can look at when it comes to this big difference in salaries. The obvious one is language. Many Latinos when they arrive in the United States do not speak English and that could obviously prevent them from climbing to better salary positions. Take my sister and me as examples, when we arrived in the United States we both were still young. I was 7 and her 8. And even though we only knew Spanish we were young enough to pick up English quickly because not only were we at an age where we were just absorbing a much of stuff but we were also taking ESL classes at school so we obviously picked up English a lot faster than our parents.

And because my sister and I picked up English and perfected it over the years, we now make a lot more than our parents whose English is not as perfect.

This also brings me to another factor, education. Today many Latinos are struggling to take college and improve their living conditions. According to the National Center for Education Statistics in 2020, the number of Hispanics enrolled in college reached 3.6 million which is a significant drop when compared to 2019 which was 3.7 million. Of course, while it is expected to increase the pandemic definitely could have been a factor in why there was that drop in enrollment compared to 2019.

But we also have to consider the high costs of universities and the few resources that are available to Hispanic families which make it increasingly difficult to obtain a University degree.

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Another important factor that could also influence salaries is adapting to the financial and credit system of the United States. This is something that a lot of personal finance influencers in the community talk about and are always stating the importance of including myself.

It’s no surprise that many Latinos come from financial systems that work differently from the United States, so understanding how it works and what to do to improve and adapt can be something very difficult. For example, things like taking out a loan to buy a home, or buying a car are mostly based on credit score or good savings, but achieving that is harder than it sounds when you not only have to learn a whole new language but also an entirely different financial system.

The good news is that between 2021 and 2031, job opportunities in the United States are expected to increase from 158.1 million to 166.5 million, a growth of 8.3 million jobs, which could mean more opportunities for us Latinos.

As it stands today Latinos continue to have problems improving our lifestyle but I personally believe that it’s up to the young generations to give our best effort every day and obtain a better place in this society.

I mentioned earlier in the intro of the episode how the Latino market measured in GDP is in the trillions. So let’s take a deeper dive into that as well.

Despite Latinos having to deal with marginalization in some boardrooms, overall U.S. Latino buying power and economic output actually grew during the pandemic.

In 2020, according to a report by the nonprofit Latino Donor Collaborative, Latinos spent $1.84 trillion, representing a consumption market LARGER THAN THE ENTIRE ECONOMIES OF CANADA or SOUTH KOREA.

According to the report, this is most likely due to a strong workforce that rebounded quickly despite a disproportionate rate of infections.

It also says the total economic output of U.S. Latinos reached $2.8 trillion in 2020, which is comparable to the GDPs of the U.K. And India.

Pay in low-wage positions like hospitality and service jobs in which Latinos are overrepresented also grew over the last couple of years as businesses struggled to find workers.

Taking a deeper dive and using Texas as an example which as previously mentioned is one of the top 3 states in which Latinos live, I found from a business coalition that Hispanic Texans in 2019 earned $213.7 billion, with more than $50 billion going to taxes, leaving them with $162.4 billion in spending power that can be reinvested in local communities.

Hispanic Texans are also helping drive population growth in the state. Between 2010 and 2019, the U.S.-born Hispanic population grew by 26.7 percent, while the foreign-born Hispanic population grew by 8 percent. In 2010, 37.7 percent of the overall population in Texas was Hispanic, that number grew to 39.8 percent in 2019.

Hispanic Texans also play a crucial role in meeting the state’s workforce needs. In 2019, 66.7 percent of the overall Hispanic population and 66.4 percent of the foreign-born Hispanic population were active in the labor force, compared with 64.1 percent of the non-Hispanic population.

Perhaps most importantly is that Hispanic Texans hold substantial voting power. In 2019, there were nearly 5.7 million eligible Hispanic voters, including more than 960,000 naturalized citizens. Overall, the Hispanic population made up 31.1 percent of the electorate, including Hispanic naturalized citizens, who on their own made up 5.2 percent.

But despite this, did you know that the Austin-area median Latino household earns almost $27,000 less than the median white household? Per federal data. This is why it’s so important that we are aware of how much we are making especially if you’re someone who is doing the same job or oftentimes more than your co-worker but they’re getting paid significantly more.

Conclusion/Closing remarks:

And so I tell you all this because by arming ourselves with the knowledge and data to back up our claims we can demand a seat at the table and make real change that can have a positive impact on our communities.

THE END

That’s all for today on the LEO podcast. I’m Kevin Muñoz and as always feel free to send me a message with your thoughts or with any interesting topic that you’d like to see covered.

and for those of you on Patreon, I’ll see you there.

Otherwise, I’ll see you all in next week’s episode!

Sources:

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