On Latina Equal Pay Day, which falls this year on October 8, we recognize Latinas’1 enduring fight for economic equity. In 2025, Latinas made just 52.6 cents per dollar compared to White, non-Hispanic men (Figure 1), which adds up to $33,370 less a year for the average Latina—money that could go toward child care, education, housing, or other investments to secure one’s future.
Latinas’ gender and racial wage gap has worsened by one cent since the 2025 Latina Equal Pay Day.2 The gap is worse for the 30.4 percent of Latinas who work part-time,3 who experience lower economic security and a higher wage gap than full-time year-round workers, who earn 59.8 cents per dollar.4 Without proactive reform, Latinas will not reach pay equity until the year 2180, meaning it will take nearly five more generations of working Latinas to reach parity.5
Many Latinas represent the foundational yet underrecognized working class that drives our economy. But this community is not a monolith and is impacted by intersecting inequities. Latino organizations have raised the importance of disaggregating data by ethnicity, race, national origin, and more to expose the structural barriers that must be dismantled for all Latinas to attain economic equity.6 Depending on Latinas’ identity groups, forces like immigration motivations,7 discrimination based on perceived race, language access, and education may hold more or less weight on their work experiences and wage gaps.8
Latinas of Central American descent—particularly Honduran, Guatemalan, and Salvadorans—face the steepest wage gaps, with Honduran-American women earning the least at 41.7 cents per dollar (Figure 2). In contrast, Argentinean- and Panamanian-American women earn the most at 68.6 cents per dollar (Figure 2). Latinas who are more recent immigrants or concentrated in low-wage jobs are more likely to be at the lower end of this range.9
Relatedly, Afro-Latinas earn more than the median Latina, making 54.9 cents per dollar due to their higher educational attainment and labor force participation (Figure 3).10 Yet, recent research shows their labor force outcomes, such as high unemployment, are more similar to those of Black women than non-Black Latinos.11 Afro-Latinas also report anti-Black labor market bias and barriers in housing and health care.12
From Indigenous to Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Latinas, no single story explains the variations in wage gaps, underscoring the importance of intersectional data analysis for pay equity advocacy.
In 2025, Latinas’ labor force participation increased to 61.1 percent (Figure 4).13 After more than a decade of the rate hovering under 60 percent and the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacting Latinas’ jobs, it now appears to be converging with White non-Hispanic men’s declining labor force participation. Still, the wage gap persists, a clear sign that addressing it demands a multifaceted approach.
The wage gap for Latinas results from structural barriers like racism, sexism, access to education, occupational segregation, workplace discrimination, and lack of equitable pathways to stable immigration status.14 The outlook is even more concerning because this analysis does not reflect the impact of the current administration’s mass detentions and deportations that have disrupted lives, communities, and economic opportunities.15
Equal Pay Days remind us of our economic interdependence: Everyone is impacted by policy decisions that limit full participation in the workforce and society. Economic interdependence also means every worker will benefit from comprehensive, evidence-informed policy solutions like access to higher-paying jobs, bargaining power, protections for caregiving and service occupations, and an end to systemic vulnerability for immigrants. With strengthened resolve, we can ensure all Latinas reach economic equity.
This Quick Figure was prepared by Comfort Sampong and Pamela Alvarado, with data analysis conducted by Comfort Sampong. Fact-checking by Dr. Mrinmoyee Chatterjee and Miranda Peterson. Thank you to our key funders for their generous support of IWPR’s core research and flagship products.
