Cumulative earnings of Black, Chinese, South Asian and White individuals born in Canada

Aneta Bonikowska, René Morissette and Grant Schellenberg

Economic and Social Reports from Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch

Abstract: Previous studies of earnings differences across groups of Canadian-born individuals have used cross-sectional data, leaving unanswered the important question of what earnings differences amount to when measured over workers’ lifecycle. Using data from Statistics Canada’s Longitudinal Worker File and the 1996 and 2001 censuses of population, this study fills this gap and quantifies differences in cumulative earnings—the sum of earnings received over a 20-year period—for four different groups of Canadian-born individuals. The study shows that the higher cumulative earnings of Chinese (+20%) and South Asian (+15%) men (relative to White men) can be mostly or entirely accounted for by their higher education levels and their overrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields of study. Conversely, the lower cumulative earnings of Black men (relative to White men) cannot be accounted for by differences in sociodemographic characteristics, human capital, job characteristics or work histories. The higher cumulative earnings of Chinese and South Asian women relative to White women can be explained mostly or entirely by cross-group differences in these observable factors, the most important being education and representation in STEM fields. By contrast, Black and White women had similar cumulative earnings over the 20-year periods considered.

Keywords: earnings; employment; population groups; visible minority; racialized groups; discrimination. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 M21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-11-27
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2024011/article/00004-eng.htm (text/html)
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/36-28-0001/ ... -eng.pdf?st=WUV5879g (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202401100004e

DOI: 10.25318/36280001202401100004-eng

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economic and Social Reports from Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Brown ().