Gender Wage Differential in Canada, 2000-2018

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is to update the Canadian evidence on the gender wage gap and see if the results have changed since the Great Recession of 2008. Using public-use files of the 2018 National Graduates Survey, I find that the gender wage gap ten years after the Great Recession is essentially the same as it was in the years prior to this recession. Furthermore, employing a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, I find that mean characteristics have little explanatory power, other than industry. Industry is the greatest contributor in explaining the gender wage gap. However, the largest portion of the gender wage gap still remains unexplained.