Hispanic intersectional pay in the United States: Measuring the intra‐ and inter‐ethnoracial and gender income differences by Hispanic groups

Abstract Most studies on racial income inequality focus on Black–White differences, ignoring the fact that Hispanic individuals are the lowest‐earning ethnoracial group in the United States. Research focusing on Hispanic workers emphasizes either men's or women's labor market experiences, treats Hispanics as a homogenous group. These approaches neglect the intersectional dynamics shaping these processes and overlook the diverse experiences across Hispanic communities. Using the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, we investigate the patterns of inequality for various Hispanic groups by gender using inter‐ and intra‐categorical comparisons. While Hispanic workers are the lowest‐earning ethnoracial group in the aggregated data, disaggregating by country of origin shows variation, with Mexicans and Central/South Americans earning the least, while Cubans and Puerto Ricans show relatively higher income. Using inter‐ethnoracial comparisons across gender, we find Cuban men show a smaller pay gap relative to non‐Hispanic White men; however, Cuban women show a larger gap, more than two times the difference between Cuban men relative to non‐Hispanic White men. Our findings highlight both the need for intersectional approaches and attention to the distinct experiences of Hispanic groups in the labor market. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results for future research.