Latino Education and Economic Progress: Running Faster but Still Behind

Latino Education and Economic Progress: Running Faster but Still Behind By: Anthony P. Carnevale and Megan L. Fasules

October 11, 2017

Overview •  Earning a college degree remains a challenge for Latinos: only 21 percent

have bachelor’s degrees, compared to 45 percent of Whites and 32 percent of Blacks.

•  Low college degree attainment has led Latinos to become caught in the middle-wage tiers of the labor market.

•  With access to better college and career counseling, Latinos can run faster toward a promising economic future.

Latinos are falling behind in many crucial college outcomes

•  While Latino enrollment has increased at two- and four- year colleges, Latino postsecondary attainment has only increased from 35 percent to 45 percent.

Latinos have increased their share of good jobs that require less than a bachelor’s degree

•  Latinos are concentrated in occupations that require less education and where wage growth is slowest

•  Latinos hold only 9 percent of jobs which require a bachelor’s degree and 7 percent of jobs requiring a graduate degree

Latinos have increased their share of good jobs (continued)

Latinos earn on average 18 percent less than Whites at every education level

•  Latino men and women are last in the overall earnings race compared to Whites and Blacks

•  However, Latino and Black men earn similar wages if they have a bachelor’s degree or higher

•  When Latinos are employed in high-wage occupations like those in STEM, race-based earnings gaps between Whites and Latinos essentially vanish

Latinos earn less than Whites at every education level (continued)

Lack of college and career counseling and socioeconomic barriers contribute to the earnings gap

•  Latinos often start at a disadvantage because many of their parents have not gone to college

•  Country of origin and English language ability are important sources of wage disparity between Whites and Latinos, but do not entirely explain the wage gaps between foreign-born and US-born Latinos

•  Only 34 percent of foreign-born Latinos have some form of postsecondary education compared to 61 percent of US-born Latinos

Latina women are the lowest earning group in America compared to Whites and Blacks

•  Latina women have higher completion rates than Latino men at every level of postsecondary education

•  Latina women are typically in low-paying majors, but those in high-paying majors still have lower earnings than Latino men

Conclusion •  High school graduation rates for Latinos have improved the

most since the 1990s compared to their White and Black peers •  Closing the information gap is imperative in supporting

Latinos through their educational and career pathways •  Latinos’ deliberate mass improvement in high school

graduation to success at certificate levels leaves them poised for advances in bachelor’s and graduate degree level attainment

For more information: See the full report at: cew.georgetown.edu/LatinosWorkforce  

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