Despite increased labor contributions, Latinos in the U.S. do not see the same wealth-building as other racial and ethnic groups.
October 30, 2023
The Brookings Institution and Latino Policy Forum partnered for a panel discussion examining the Latino wealth gap.
Latinos in the United States continue to make significant contributions to the nation's economy, with some of the highest labor participation rates in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Latinos have also seen an increase in wealth over the past 20 years.
Yet, the Latino wealth gap persists – Latinos in the U.S. continue to see a discrepancy between the economic benefits they provide and the economic benefits they receive.
The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, hosted a panel discussion in partnership with the Latino Policy Forum on Oct. 23 to discuss this issue and how it varies regionally.
The discussion, which drew almost 200 live participants and over 1,000 views after the event, invited panelists from different sectors to comment on a Brookings Metro Report that highlighted the regional and other differences in Latino wealth.
One panelist, Joe Scantlebury, the chief executive officer of Living Cities, described the inconsistency between Latino wealth improving but simultaneously not meeting that of other racial and ethnic groups.
“We’re no longer in a place of invisibility,” said Scantlebury. “But we still suffer from the desire to make us invisible.”
The event began with a keynote address from U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the first Latino to represent California in the U.S. Senate.
Sen. Padilla noted that when considering the disparities in asset ownership and building between Latino families and white families and how to solve it, it is important to address how Latinos were put in this position to begin with.
“We cannot successfully address economic disparities without addressing the systematic barriers that prevent Latinos from building wealth in the first place,” Padilla said.
The report looks at Latino wealth in six states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Texas. Wealth, as defined in the report, is “what you own minus what you owe.”
Chief Executive Officer of the Latino Policy Forum, Sylvia Puente, attributes the regional differences in Latino wealth, in part, to state policies.
“I think understanding the local context of the state policy environment is a key regional difference when we look at some of the differences here,” Puente said.
One key policy issue Puente believes impacts regional differences is education policy.
“We know that in people's lifetimes, those with a college degree are going to earn substantially more than those that don't, so I think when we look at regional differences, education policy is really important,” she said.
Panelists noted that an increase in Latino wealth may not reflect the reality of the gap between Latino and white families.
“Yes, we're owning homes at a higher rate,” Scantlebury said. “But what is the quality of the homes that we're owning?”
Puente emphasized this point, adding that an analysis by the Latino Policy Forum proved Scantlebury’s point exactly when looking at Latino homeowners in Chicago.
“Three out of every four Latinos was living in one of the two census tracts with the lowest home values,” Puente said. “If we're buying homes in very low-wealth communities, then how does that impact our wealth building?”
The second half of the report focused on conversations that spoke to the lived experiences of Latinos.
Puente called back to this section of the report during the discussion to stress that the perception of wealth building and the causes of the Latino wealth gap are flawed, even among those in the community.
“When participants were asked how do you build wealth in America, most of them said, ‘take another job,’” Puente said. “We know that most wealth accumulation is not happening from people who are getting their hands toiling.”
Noel Poyo, the deputy assistant secretary for community economic development at the U.S. Department of Treasury, underscored this observation when looking at how Latinos have historically passed up on government programs intended for them out of a mentality that they don’t deserve them.
“‘I just need to work harder,’ yeah, but that's neither here nor there because this is about something bigger, and we need you not to have to work harder on just surviving,” he said.