Gender Wage Gap among Canadian-born and Immigrant Workers with Respect to Visible Minority Status

Abstract

Using data from 2011 National Household Survey, this paper investigates the gender wage gap among Canadian-born and immigrant workers with regard to visible minority status. The explanatory variables that have impacts on the gender wage gap include education, age, presence of children, marital status and province. I create two samples, one of full-time full-year workers and another one that includes all workers. The main findings are that there are larger returns to education for females than for males, no matter the immigration and ethnic status. Within the visible minorities, immigrants have lower wages than non-immigrants. Specifically, male Filipino immigrants and female South Asian immigrants suffer the largest wage gaps. The higher return to education for females than for males among the South Asians is not as significant as it is among the Chinese. A Oaxaca decomposition shows that demographic factors, educational attainment and some omitted factors play an important role in the unexplained parts of the wage gaps.