Pitbull Is Helping Latino Business Owners Financially Affected By COVID-19
Latinos are suffering harder economic downfalls because of Covid-19. Latinos have disproportionately been laid off and experienced pay cuts as businesses closed because of the pandemic. Pitbull teamed up with Priceline and Hello Alice to give Latino owned small businesses an emergency grant.
Pitbull is teaming up with two organizations to give money to Latino owned small businesses.
The program is aimed at giving businesses up to $10,000 to keep their businesses open. Latino unemployment in the U.S. is 18.9 percent because of Covid-19. That means that 4 million, or 1 in every 5 Latinos, is currently unemployed because of the virus.
Latinos are currently experiencing the worst economic loss to the community since the Great Recession.
The Latino and Black communities have born the brunt of the economic ups and downs of the U.S. economy. The current unemployment statistics are the worst for Latinos since the Great Recession. During that time, Latinos lost 66 percent of their wealth. The novel coronavirus has exposed the precarious economic state of the Latino community in an economy with stagnant wages yet rising costs of living.
In February, the Latino unemployment rate was 4.4 percent.
President Trump has bragged about the unemployment rate for the Latino and Black populations. Latinas are the largest and fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S. and the pandemic has hit the community hard. Pitbull’s program could help to keep those entrepreneurs afloat.
Businesses can be awarded up to $10,000. The reason for financial help is more than unemployment. Organizers of the fund also point to the number of Latino businesses that were denied funding through the federal government.
“We found out the centers for responsible lending said that 91% of all Latino applicants of government Phase one funding got rejected. Secondly, the sectors that can’t work from home. ‘You can’t be a waiter at home there are no customers,’” Jeff Hoffman, founder of Priceline, told CBS Miami.
Hoffman added: “A competitor before, are now your friends. Reach out to those businesses near you talk to those people ask what ideas work for them and what resources they can share and we’ll figure this out together.”
