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Challenges of Latino Aging in the Americas pp 355–378Cite as

The Economic Security of Latino Baby Boomers: Implications for Future Retirees and for Healthcare Funding in the U.S.

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Abstract

Healthcare spending in the U.S. is at an all-time high and projected to continue rising, partly due to baby boomer aging. As most public spending for healthcare comes from general taxation revenues, the ability of the U.S. government to fund future healthcare liabilities will be determined by the economic productivity of the workforce. U.S. population growth continues to be driven by a growing Latino population, meaning taxation revenue will be dependent on incomes of an increasingly Latino workforce. Minimizing persistent economic disparities between Latinos and non-Latinos will be crucial to ensuring the economic prosperity of the Latino community and supporting U.S. economic health. After adjusting for sociodemographics, structural disparities in income for Latino baby boomers were considerably reduced but were no lower than those of the Silent Generation. These results suggest continuing investment in the Latino population, both for the advancement of Latino economic security and the bolstering of national economic growth.

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Acknowledgments

This research was undertaken largely under a Ford Foundation-funded project, Latinos and Economic Security, based at the UCLA Center for Policy Research on Aging. Further support was provided from the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging and through a dissertation fellowship from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Zachary D. Gassoumis & Kathleen H. Wilber

  2. Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

    Fernando M. Torres-Gil

Authors
  1. Zachary D. Gassoumis
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  2. Kathleen H. Wilber
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  3. Fernando M. Torres-Gil
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zachary D. Gassoumis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    William A. Vega

  2. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, Texas, USA

    Kyriakos S. Markides

  3. The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

    Jacqueline L. Angel

  4. School of Public Affairs, University of California. Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Fernando M. Torres-Gil

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Gassoumis, Z., Wilber, K., Torres-Gil, F. (2015). The Economic Security of Latino Baby Boomers: Implications for Future Retirees and for Healthcare Funding in the U.S.. In: Vega, W., Markides, K., Angel, J., Torres-Gil, F. (eds) Challenges of Latino Aging in the Americas. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12598-5_21

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