Canada's visible minorities earn less

The country’s multicultural image is under the lens with claims of there being a wage gap between the native Canadians and Canadian-born visible minorities.

Canada is known to be a refuge for people from different cultural backgrounds, to start a new life. But the country’s multicultural image is under the lens with claims of there being a wage gap between the native Canadians and Canadian-born visible minorities.

Canadian-born visible minorities refers to the children of the immigrants from the 1960-70’s and the immigrants who moved to Canada as children. The claim that the visible minorities earn less than their white counterparts, has been the talk on the streets for a long time.

According to a study conducted by economist Krishna Pendakur of the Simor Fraser University, there is a gap of about 18 per cent in the earnings of a Canadian-born visible minority man with similar education and experience, as that of a Canadian-born white man. In contrast, the wage gap for their female counterparts is 3 per cent.

Another study by economist Mikal Skuterud also revealed that there is a difference of 8 per cent in the earnings of Canadian-born Chinese. The study also revealed that for South Asians and black Caribbeans, the wage gap stood at 13 per cent and at about 19 per cent respectively.

According to the recent reports, visible minority immigrants in the age group of 25 to 44 years, earned an average of $39,814 as compared to non visible minority immigrants who earned an average of $45,352 and the non-immigrants who earned an average of $40,358 each year.

A study titled ‘Color by numbers: Minority earnings in Canada 1996-2006’, by Professor Pendakur, along with his brother, sociologist Ravi Pendakur, showed that there were differences in wages across regions, in the country, as well. In Montreal, the gap for men was as high as 30 per cent, while in Toronto it was down to 15 per cent and further down to 10 per cent in Vancouver.

The wage difference varied between the public and the private sectors too. In a study by the government’s StatsCan, it was revealed that the difference in earnings for men stood at 3 per cent only, much lower than the private sector.

According to the study by Pendankur brothers, the situation of visible-minority men has been on the decline across the country between the years 1996 and 2006. It was revealed in the study that the visible minorities men wage gap with the white men stood at 14 per cent in 1996, increasing to 17 per cent in 2001 and further deeper to 18 per cent by 2006.