FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tonya Williams Williams@iwpr.org
October 8, 2025
Latinas Stand to Lose $1.2 Million Over the Course of a Career
IWPR Report Released on the 10th Anniversary of Latina Equal Pay Day
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), a leading national think tank advancing women’s equity, released a new report showing that a typical Latina working full-time year-round stands to lose about $1.2 million over the course of a 40-year career due to the wage gap. The report is being released on the 10th anniversary of Latina Equal Pay Day—a campaign that uplifts the hard work and resilience of Latinas while calling attention to the stark wage gap they face.
IWPR analysis finds that Latinas are paid 54.1 cents to every dollar paid to White, non-Hispanic men. This number includes all Latinas with reported earnings, like part-time, seasonal, and migrant workers. For full-time, year-round workers, the wage gap is 58.0 cents for every dollar paid to White, non-Hispanic men.
“It is imperative that we continue to bring attention to the topic of unequal pay broadly, and Latina equal pay specifically,” says Dr. Jamila K. Taylor, president and CEO of IWPR. “Because we know that when the issues of the most vulnerable among us are addressed, there is progress for everyone. Through our analysis, IWPR researchers want to illustrate the cost to a community when the labor of women is undervalued.”
“For a decade, we’ve been tracking the wage gap for Latinas, and despite progress, their pay still hovers barely past half that of White men. The gap won’t close for well over a century,” says Dr. Martha Susana Jaimes, senior research economist at IWPR. “These numbers not only tell a story about economic disparities, but about the values that our larger society places on the type of work Latinas often do—low-wage jobs with very few workplace protections, such as farm work, child and elder care, and domestic and hospitality work. This, coupled with the current racist attacks on immigrant communities, only deepens the structural economic inequities faced by Latinas and their families.”
Additional key findings from the fact sheet include:
- It will take well over a century to achieve pay equity. Based on trends since 2002, it will take until 2160 for Latinas working full-time year-round to reach pay equity with White men. For all Latina workers, who are more likely to work part-time and seasonally, it will take until 2178, meaning pay equity is still more than 150 years away.
- Latinas earned less than half of what White men were paid in 28 states in 2023. In these states, they also earned less than $23,000 a year—an income below the 2023 federal poverty threshold of $24,549 for a single adult supporting two children.
- Latinas working full-time year-round continued to be paid less than White men in all states and the District of Columbia in 2023.
- Several factors contribute to the lower earnings of Latinas, including systemic inequities such as discrimination, educational attainment, immigration status, and overrepresentation in lower-paid fields.
Policy recommendations include:
- Mandating salary transparency and banning the use of salary history in hiring decisions.
- Raising the federal minimum wage and increasing investment in low-wage, care-based sectors.
- Expanding access to paid family and medical leave.
- Increasing funding for affordable child and elder care.
- Ensuring and enforcing pay equity and protections against discrimination and harassment.
Read the full Latina Equal Pay Day fact sheet here.
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The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) is the nation’s leading think tank working to win economic equity for all women. Through evidence-based research, policy solutions, and advocacy, IWPR is advancing the power and well-being of women across the US. Learn more at IWPR.org.
