For years, economists have pointed to low unemployment, steady GDP growth and resilient consumer spending as evidence that the U.S. economy remains fundamentally strong. But for many Latino families, those positive headlines have felt disconnected from everyday reality.
New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York may help explain why.
The study found that American workers are receiving the smallest share of the nation's economic output since the federal government began tracking the data after World War II. While the economy has continued to expand, an increasingly larger portion of the wealth created is flowing to corporations, investors, and shareholders instead of workers' paychecks.
For Latinos, who make up one of the youngest and fastest-growing segments of the U.S. workforce and are disproportionately represented in lower-paying industries, economists say the trend is especially significant.
The Federal Reserve's measure, known as the "labor share of income," shows workers received just 54.1% of national income in early 2026. In the decades following World War II, that figure exceeded 65%. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, workers claimed 57.7% of the nation's income.
The decline comes despite a labor market that has remained relatively healthy by historical standards.
According to a recent Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey, nearly half of Americans, 48%, said they were financially worse off than a year earlier, the highest level since early 2023. A separate CBS News poll found that three out of four Americans believe their wages are failing to keep pace with inflation, while fewer than one-third believe the economy is in good shape.
For Latino households, those pressures are often magnified.
Latinos have the highest labor force participation rate in the country, with 67.1% participating in the workforce compared with 62.4% nationally. They also have a median age of just 31, making them one of the country's youngest working populations. Yet many remain concentrated in industries such as construction, hospitality, agriculture, maintenance, health care and service occupations, sectors that generally offer lower wages and fewer opportunities for wealth accumulation.
The gap shows up clearly in earnings data.
According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report, full-time Hispanic workers earned a median of $984 per week during the first quarter of 2026, compared with $1,263 for White workers. Hispanic men earned a median of $1,054 weekly, while Hispanic women earned $901.
Economists say those wage differences become even more meaningful when workers are also receiving a shrinking share of overall economic growth.
"You've got a lot of people who seem to work for firms that, in the aggregate, seem to be doing really well," Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told CBS News. "They're very profitable, and yet workers' wages aren't growing particularly fast relative to how fast the firms are growing."
Another measure reinforces the trend. The Economic Policy Institute estimates workers received 71.3% of corporate income during the first quarter of 2026, down from nearly 79% in 1979. The rest increasingly flows to shareholders through stock buybacks, dividends and executive compensation rather than employee pay.
The consequences extend beyond monthly paychecks.
Although Latino household incomes have increased over the past decade, wealth accumulation continues to lag far behind White households. A recent National Community Reinvestment Coalition analysis found the median Latino household held about $62,120 in net wealth in 2022, compared with $284,310 for White households. About two-thirds of Latino households also lack enough liquid savings to cover three months of expenses if they lose their primary source of income.
A separate report from the Latino Policy and Politics Institute found Latino households hold only about 22 cents in wealth for every dollar held by White households, despite Latinos generating an estimated $4 trillion contribution to the U.S. economy. Researchers argue that persistent disparities in labor markets, housing, education and access to capital continue limiting wealth creation across generations.
The Federal Reserve findings also arrive as many families continue battling inflation.
Although wage growth has improved in recent years, higher prices for housing, groceries, healthcare and transportation have continued eroding purchasing power. Many households have increasingly relied on credit cards and auto loans simply to cover everyday expenses, contributing to rising delinquency rates nationwide.
For Latino families, who are generally younger and more likely to support multigenerational households, those financial pressures can have an outsized impact.
