Poverty, Income Gaps Hit Hispanic Women Harder Than Any Other Group

Some data points are profoundly disturbing, even if you had long feared that they might be true. That is the case with a report recently released by the Dallas Women's Foundation and the Institute for Women's Policy Research that found that Hispanic women are locked in poverty in our area in stunning ways and at shocking rates. The report found that women in general earn far less than men in Collin, Denton, and Dallas counties but that Hispanic women lag so far behind in these counties that they appeared unable to break free of the bonds of poverty. In fact, the report finds that Hispanic women in these counties are likely to be worse off than other women in all three counties and experience the deepest economic misery in Dallas County. According to the study, the median annual earnings in Dallas County for Hispanic women is $25,345, about $11,000 less than for African-American women and about $26,168 less than for white women. As a result of poverty level wages, Hispanic women in Dallas County experienced the highest poverty rate, 22.8 percent than women in the other counties, and earn just 38.4 percent of what men earn.  Continue reading...