In 2021, October 21 marks Latina Equal Pay Day, or the day Latina women must work, on average, into the new year to earn what their White male counterparts brought home in the previous year. This represents over nine additional months of full-time work to earn the same pay as their male counterparts in one year. 

 In 2020, the average Latina earned only 57.3 percent of White, non-Hispanic men’s earnings, equivalent to $28,911 less for a year of full-time work. Latinas as a group have the lowest earnings of any major race/ethnicity and gender group. Their median annual earnings of $38,718 for a year of full-time work is below 200% of the federal poverty level for a family of three.

If progress continues at the same rate as it has since 1985, Latinas will not reach equal pay with White non-Hispanic men for another 185 years, or until 2206.

Prior to COVID-19, Latinas’ gender earnings ratio in 2019 compared to White men was 55.4 percent, the same as it was in 2011. While the improvement in the earnings ratio suggests some progress, it is largely due to the disproportionate job loss felt by the lowest-paid Latinas. Fewer women in low-wage jobs worked full-time, year-round in 2020 and are no longer counted in the data; therefore, median earnings increased.