During the recession, whites, blacks and Latinos were all impacted differently regarding their wealth and retirement assets. According to the The Urban Institute’s report “Less Than Equal: Racial Disparities in Wealth Accumulation”, whites actually increased their assets, while blacks and Latinos saw a decrease.
Out of the three groups, Latinos were the most negatively impacted by the recession, Politic365 reported.
Data from The Urban Institute report was taken from the 1980s, which found that whites starting out with “significantly more wealth” than Latinos or blacks accumulated more wealth over a lifetime.
The report found that whites started with four times more wealth in their 30s than Latinos and ended up with five times more wealth by their 60s. The lack of wealth caused Latinos to have more to lose when the recession hit because they were more likely to rely on their retirement assets. Figures showed Latinos lost 18 percent of their retirement assets in the recession.
“In 2010, whites on average had six times the wealth of blacks and Hispanics. So for every $6.00 whites had in wealth, blacks and Hispanics had $1.00 (or average wealth of $632,000 versus $103,000),” the report said.
The disparity was not caused by the recession, but was exacerbated by it.
“Overall, everyone saw declines in wealth from 2007-2009, but Latinos saw the largest drop. . .” the report said.
