Latinos Least Likely to Have Paid Leave or Workplace Flexibility, New Study States

Latinos are less likely than other American workers to get access to paid leave or workplace flexibility, a new report from the Center for American Progress states.

The report, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as part of their annual American Time Use Survey, shows that minorities who are employed are less likely than white workers to have access to paid leave or workplace flexibility.

"Disparities in job quality exist both as part of historical trends resulting from decades of institutionalized racism and the fact that workers of color are more likely than white workers to be employed in low-wage, low-quality jobs," the center states in its report.

In figures looking at the percentage of workers 18 and older with access to paid leave by race and ethnicity for 2011, the center's figures find that Latinos lagged behind in African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Caucasian-Americans in receiving paid sick days (only 38.4 percent of Latinos getting such days) , paid parent leave (25.1 percent) and paid vacations (44.1 percent).

Furthermore, the center finds, Latinos are least likely from any other racial group to have visited a clinician or dentist in the past 12 months.

"In 2010 more than 42 percent of Latinos did not make a single trip to a medical provider," the center writes. "This is 15 percent higher than the average for all Americans, 12.6 percent higher than the average for blacks, and 20 percent higher than the average for whites."

One possible reason for the disparity between Latinos and other race groups might be found in the kind of work being done by each group.

Roughly 56.4 percent of Latinos are in the bottom 40 percent of earners, according to the center's findings, as compared to 33.3 percent of whites, 44.53 percent of blacks, and 30.19 percent of Asians. And only more than 10 percent of Latinos have income putting them in the top 20 percentile of earnings, compared against 13.69 percent of blacks, 23.13 percent of whites, and almost 40 percent of Asian Americans.

The disparities continue when measuring flexible hours in the workplace. Only 14.1 percent of Latino workers having this option, while 18 percent of blacks, 23.8 percent of whites, and 31.8 percent of Asian Americans have flexible working hours.

The center advocates that policymakers should aim to create more inclusive policies for workers in order to help Latinos obtain those benefits without fear of losing pay or jobs. This includes passing the Healthy Families Act, which would allow workers to accrue paid sick leave based on the amount of hours they work, which would especially be beneficial to part time workers.

"Inclusive policies for workers are necessary as the need for time away from work to recover from an illness or care for a family member is nearly universal," the study concludes. "It is high time that our workplace policies reflected that fact."