| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: | |
| September 17, 2015 | Camila Gallardo | |
| (305) 215-4259 | ||
| cgallardo@nclr.org |
Congressional Inaction Threatens to Keep Latino Working Families in Poverty
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Yesterday the U.S. Census Bureau released new data that showed that income and poverty rates in the Latino community barely budged from last year. Hispanic households had a median income of $42,491 in 2014, a number just slightly higher than 2013, when the median income was $40,337. Data from the Census showed a slight drop in the poverty rate among Latinos to 23.6 percent in 2014 from 24.7 percent the previous year. However, the rate remains too high and is almost twice that of the general population (14.8 percent).
While there is no statistical difference in the data reported in 2013 and 2014, the newer Census numbers demonstrate that Latinos continue to face real challenges to financial progress and that too many in our community, including 5.7 million children, continue to live in poverty,” said Samantha Vargas Poppe, Associate Director, Policy Analysis Center, NCLR.
With poverty disproportionately burdening the Latino community, prevention policies are vital. These include the federal minimum wage and refundable tax credits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). However, Congress has yet to take action to boost the federal minimum wage or make permanent the 2009 expansion of the EITC and CTC set to expire in 2017. The enhanced EITC and CTC helped lift 10 million Americans out of poverty in 2014. If these improvements are not maintained, roughly five million working Latino families will lose an average of $1,000 each and 16 million Americans will be pushed into or deeper into poverty. In addition, raising the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour would help boost the income of about 8.5 million Latino workers.
“Congress has an opportunity to act on several fronts that will have an indelible impact on helping lift Latinos and other Americans out of poverty. Raising the minimum wage and saving tax credits for working families would place them on a smoother path to gaining financial security,” continued Vargas Poppe.
Find out more about the latest data from the U.S. Census and what it reveals about Latinos in an NCLR fact sheet.
NCLR—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—works to improve opportunities for Latinos. For more information on NCLR, please visit www.nclr.org, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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