Dear colleagues,

We’re now in the midst of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 to October 15. It’s a time to reflect on the contributions of our Hispanic colleagues and America’s Hispanic population writ large, but it’s also time to consider how we can better serve this rich and diverse community, which our economy, frankly, has not always served very well.

This has been particularly true during the pandemic. In fact, if someone tried to design an economic crisis that would unduly target Latino Americans, they’d probably come up with something that looks a lot like COVID-19. The five sectors that the pandemic was most likely to slow or shut down accounted for 50 percent of revenues for Latino-owned businesses.

Our Department is without a doubt helping people bounce back. Treasury is paying out the expanded child tax credit to help working families cover the costs of raising kids. We’re providing rental assistance to ensure people can keep a roof over their heads, and we’re focused on expanding access to capital, too, so Latino families can buy homes and Latino entrepreneurs can hang a shingle and scale up.  But this is only a start.

When it comes to the Hispanic community, there is such a frustrating irony in the historic data: On the one hand, Hispanic Americans outperform in the creation of new businesses. On the other, they have less access to capital to create and grow them in the first place. One study looked at national banks and their loan approval rates for white- and Latino-owned firms. The approval rate for Latino-owned companies was 60% lower – and that’s even when controlling for how the business was performing.^[i]    

We know that Latinos – and especially Latinas – are overrepresented in the ranks of essential workers, the people who have kept our country afloat this past year. But we also know that support has not been returned in kind. Before the pandemic, Latinas accounted for 17 percent of the women in the labor force. As of last March, they accounted for 27 percent of women who’ve left it.

I am committed to unwinding this frustrating irony in the data, to repairing the broken foundations of our economy and, on top of them, building something stronger and fairer than what came before. I know many of you joined Treasury to do the same thing. 

To our Treasury colleagues who are members of the Hispanic community: I’m thankful for your service and your contributions this month – and every month. And to our entire Treasury team: I’m grateful, as always, for your tireless efforts on behalf of the American people, and I’m proud to be your colleague.

Sincerely,

Secretary Yellen

^[i] https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publication-pdf/report-2020-state-of-latino-entrepreneurship.pdf