Latinos Are Underpaid by $288 Billion a Year, Creating a Massive Wage Gap


Latinos Are Underpaid by $288 Billion a Year, Creating a Massive Wage Gap

A wage gap between Latino and white workers is a large factor in preventing economic mobility for Latinos, according to a new study by McKinsey & Co. The gap is particularly large for Latino immigrants, who are paid far less in the same job categories as other workers. “The median wage for foreign-born Hispanics is $31,700 compared to $38,848 for those born in the U.S. For non-Latino white workers, the number goes up to $52,942,” according to NBC Latino. With low wages and fewer opportunities for fields that offer career growth, Latinos are at a disadvantage and are more likely to struggle to meet basic needs like housing, food, healthcare, and more. This, in turn, heightens their risk for disease and poor health outcomes. Let’s learn how low wages and other barriers ...

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Silvia López Chavez: Community Advocacy through Art



If one were to walk in the streets of Boston and see a colorful mural, there’s a big chance Silvia López Chavez created that masterpiece.  López Chavez is a Dominican-American visual artist changing the meaning of advocacy.   Throughout her career she has created many murals with bold and vivid colors capturing Latino traditions and culture while emphasizing the intersection of art design and community issues like the environment and healthy food.  “I think that as an artist, I feel the responsibility of being someone who is not only creating art, to change and transform spaces, but also people,” López Chavez said. “And I think that my goal is to be able to connect as much as possible using art as a vehicle for connection with others to myself, to others and also ...

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Thanks for Speaking Up to Improve Healthcare for Latinos!


Lung Cancer Impact Latinos

Over 60 members of Salud America! endorsed our public comment to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in their request for feedback on as part of its draft Strategic Plan for 2022-2026. The draft was open for comment from Oct. 7 to Nov. 7, 2021. At Salud America!, we believe that improving healthcare by making it more accessible and culturally tailored for Latinos and other people of color will help build health equity. We believe this is possible through increasing diversity among research leaders and clinical trial participants, eliminating implicit bias in the doctor’s office, and hiring healthcare workers who can provide culturally relevant patient care. That’s why we submitted a comment from our leader, Dr. Amelie Ramirez. Dr. Amelie Ramirez’s Comment ...

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#SaludTues Tweetchat 1/4: Raising Awareness for Cervical Cancer


Donar Muestras Biológicas cancer alzheimers research

Each year, more than 14,000 people are diagnosed with cervical cancer in the United States. This cancer is especially hurting communities of color, with Latinas at a high risk of a diagnosis. But cervical cancer is preventable. Stopping cervical cancer for Latinas and all communities means equitable education about the causes, prevention, and treatment of HPV and cervical cancer. Join #SaludTues at 1 p.m. EST on Jan. 4, 2022, to tweet about how we can stop cervical cancer in celebration of Cervical Cancer Awareness Month in January. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “What Can We Do to Stop Cervical Cancer?” DATE: Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022 TIME: 1:00-2:00 p.m. EST (10:00-11:00 p.m. PST) WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues HOST: @SaludAmerica CO-HOSTS: ...

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Join a Genetic Screening Clinical Trial to Help Identify Your Tumor Risk!


Clinical Trial Genetic Screening Tumor Risk.png

While some cancers develop through unhealthy habits like smoking, others happen through genetics. Clinical trials with volunteers who have a family history of cancer can help researchers learn how to better slow, manage, and/or treat these diseases. This can help save the lives of people whose family experiences cancer generationally. If you have a family history of cancer, you can join a clinical trial at UT Health San Antonio that is studying pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas — endocrine tumors often inherited from family members genetically. “A family history of endocrine tumors could mean you and your loved ones have a higher risk,” said Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research and the Salud America!  program at UT Health San ...

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9 Holiday Actions for Health Equity


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Volunteering for Christmas and New Year’s helps other people. It gives the volunteer a nice emotional boost, too. So why not volunteer your "voice" or "actions"? We at Salud America! invite you to take these nine actions to promote health equity for Latino and all families this holiday season! 1. Share Stories of Latinos Who Changed Their Hearts and Got the COVID-19 Vaccine! To help move Latinos from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine confidence, Salud America! is uplifting the stories of real Latinos who overcame misinformation, got the vaccine, reconnected with family, and are helping end the pandemic. Share these “change of heart” heroes in English or Spanish! Rosa Herrera read on Facebook that the vaccine would inject her with a microchip. She learned that was a myth. ...

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What Latinos Should Know About the Omicron Variant


Omicron Variant Latinos Know

A new strain of the COVID-19 virus is spreading, and the Omicron variant has already reached North America, experts say. This is yet another mutation, following the Delta variant, that was first identified in South African researchers. It has quickly spread to other continents. Health experts, such as former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, urge people to not get over-worried too quickly about Omicron, but still take available precautions like getting the COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot. "Is this making people more ill? There's no indication that it is. And in fact, there's some anecdotal information offered from physicians in South Africa that this could be causing milder illness. Now, that could be an artifact of the fact that initial cases seem to be clustered in younger ...

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Latinos Experience Major Health Inequities in Most U.S. States


Latinos Health Inequities Most States

We know Latinos and other racial/ethnic minorities experience health, social, and environmental inequities that increase their risk for disease. But just how widespread is the problem? Very few states do not face major issues with health inequities and health disparities, according to the Commonwealth Fund’s new report, “Achieving Racial and Ethnic Equity in US Health Care: A Scorecard of State Performance.” The authors of the report list many inequities that make an impact, and they also note that the system that promotes these trends is to blame. “Decades of policy choices made by federal, state, and local leaders have led to structural economic suppression, unequal educational access, and residential segregation, all of which have contributed in their own ways to ...

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Exploring the Severe Burden of Stomach Cancer among Latinos


stomach cancer abdominal pain gastric cancer latino latina

Stomach cancer, also called gastric cancer, disproportionately impacts Latinos. In fact, U.S. Latino men and women are twice as likely as their White peers to develop invasive gastric cancer, according to a 2021 report. But little is known about regional differences. That is why Dr. Dorothy Long Parma of UT Health San Antonio and her colleagues conducted a study to analyze gastric cancer rates for Latinos in South Texas, Texas, and the United States. "We found that overall stomach cancer incidence rates in Texas and South Texas were higher in Latinos than in non-Latino Whites, despite lower frequencies in the state and South Texas region compared to the United States," said Long Parma, assistant professor/research at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) in the ...

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