GENDER INEQUALITY - SORTING OUT THE EFFECTS OF RACE ETHNICITY AND GENDER IN THE ANGLO MALE LATINO FEMALE EARNINGS GAP/

One of the most significant features of the U.S. economy in the 20th C entury is the persistent earnings gap between men and women. The gap i n earnings between Angle men and women of color has also been an endur ing featue of the U.S. labor market. Since 1949, the earnings gap betw een Latino women and Angle men has remained virtually the same (53%-55 %), even though Latinos have steadily increased their labor force part icipation at a faster rate than any other female group. While this for m of gender inequality has received considerable attention, only a few studies have focused on the earnings of Latino women. This explorator y study tests the ability of a human capital model to explain earnings inequalities between Latino women (Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, an d Cuban) and Angle men. Using regression decomposition analyses, we al so examine how the factors of race/ethnicity and gender affect the ear nings differences between men and women. Our findings indicate that th e human capital model accounts for less than 25% of the earnings diffe rence between our male and female groups. When we control for the net effect of ethnicity holding gender constant, we find that the human ca pital model accounts for 83% of the earnings difference between Angle women and racial/ethnic women, suggesting that gender is an important predictor in explaining the earnings gap. Given these results, we offe r other possible explanations (e.g., economic restructuring) for the p ersistence of the inequality of earnings between Latino women and Angl e men. We conclude with some policy suggestions for alleviating this l abor market problem.