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Service + Solidarity Spotlight: LCLAA President Merino: Reflection, Alliance and Action Needed to Achieve Latino Equal Pay

Yanira Merino

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

In a Spanish-language essay for La Opinión, Yanira Merino, national president for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), called for a series of actions that are necessary to achieve equal pay for Latinas.

“We must renew our commitment to break the cycle that marginalizes Latinas, so that we can ensure that economic security is not a fantasy, but rather fully comes true so that Latinas can live and work with dignity and are less susceptible to different forms of violence in the workplace, including sexual harassment,” Merino said

Merino goes on to note that each Latina loses an average of $1.2 million in earnings during her working life. Latinas still earn 54 cents for every dollar a non-Latino White man earns. The gap not only exists at all income levels, it continues to widen.