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Gasoline:
While the increase in gas prices has increased costs for all commuters, workers from households whose income is below the federal poverty level pay a larger proportion of their income for gas. According to an Urban Institute Study, low-income commuters on average have slightly shorter commutes than those with incomes above the poverty level. However, because their incomes are much lower, poorer commuters spend a much higher portion of their wages on gas. As gas prices reach in excess of $5 per gallon, double, and in some cases triple, poorer families may see as much as 10 percent of their incomes devoted to buying gasoline.
Homeownership/Housing:
In spite of high Southern California real estate prices in comparison to other parts of the country, Latinos in Riverside are tied with those in San Antonio (at 58 percent) as the most likely to own a home in the nation's top ten largest Latino population areas. Both regions are topped by McAllen, Texas, however, where 68 percent of Latinos live in their own homes. Perhaps not surprisingly, New York - followed by Los Angeles and San Francisco - have the lowest rates of Latino homeownership.
AgJOBS:
The “Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act” (AgJOBS), is a bipartisan, compromise bill that is the result of years of negotiations among farmworkers, Members of Congress and the agriculture industry. AgJOBS would combine an earned legalization program for farmworkers with the reform of the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program. The result would provide for undocumented farmworkers to become eligible to apply for temporary immigration status based on their past work experience, and adjust to permanent resident status upon satisfaction of the program's prospective agricultural work requirement. It would also reform the existing H-2A foreign agricultural guest worker program by reducing much of the “red tape” of which farm employers have long complained.
Access to Affordable Health Care:
While Latinos are affected by a wide range of risk factors and diseases, nearly every health disparity experienced could be prevented or more effectively managed given timely access to health care. Unfortunately, a number of barriers including a widespread lack of health insurance and an inadequate supply of linguistically appropriate services prevent Latinos from gaining access to quality care.
In all of the nation's top ten Latino metro areas, the share of Latinos without health insurance is significantly larger than among the general population. In Los Angeles, for example, 33 percent of adult Latinos have no health insurance, compared with 22 percent of adult Angelinos in general. There are much bigger numbers of uninsured Latinos in other cities. In Atlanta, Georgia, 51 percent of the Latino population is uninsured. The biggest share of uninsured Latino children is found in Salt Lake City, Utah (28 percent).
The United States is in dire need of fundamental immigration reform that is realistic, flexible, and addresses the human and family toll. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010 provides such a framework. Why is this a consumer issue? Simply put, immigration reform that works is an economic issue that will result in increased opportunities for local businesses.
According to recent studies, the poverty rate among Latino seniors is nearly 18%. Economic insecurity is especially difficult for older adults who are often not physically able to improve their economic situation by re-entering the workforce. Moreover, most of the elders experiencing economic insecurity spent their youth and adulthood in the workforce, but were not able to save enough money to support their basic needs in older age.