Immigrant Wages in the Public and Private Sectors: How do these Compare to the Wages of the Canadian-born?
Researchers: Richard Mueller1, Khuong Truong2, Annabella Ansah1
Affiliation: University of Lethbridge1, Curtin University2
Research Partner: Mowat Centre
Keywords: Immigrants, labour market integration, public sector, private sector, wage distribution, quantitative research, Canadian census data, the Labour Force Survey
Jump to: Methodology, Findings, Recommendations
Summary
Overview: This study used two Statistics Canada data sets (the Labour Force Survey and the 2016 Census of Population) to explore immigrant wage differences in the public and private sector. The study also looked at wage differentials by different class of immigration (e.g., provincial nominees, refugees, etc.) and in comparison to Canadian-born employees.
Objective: to advance our knowledge of the wage disparities that immigrants experience in both the public and private sector compared to Canadian-born counterparts.
Research Justification: Immigrants are increasingly important sources of labour in Canada. The public sector is an important source of employment for both immigrants and Canadian-born. Still little is known about how immigrant wages in the public sector compares to those in the private sector, or how they compare to Canadian-born wages in the public sector.
Methodology
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) spans 3 years on either side of 2015, and the 2016 Census contains data for 2015. Using both datasets allowed the researchers to compare immigrant wages to those of Canadian-born individuals, both within and between the public and private sectors. Data was disaggregated into federal, provincial, and local levels of government administration, and included public sector jobs that are not related to public administration (e.g. health care).
Standard wage decomposition techniques (e.g., Blinder 1973; Oaxaca 1973) were be employed to see how changes in the wage gap can be explained by factors such as higher levels of education. The decomposition techniques outlined in Fortin et al. (2010) was used to determine at which points in the wage distribution there were wage gaps that cannot be explained by the usual factors that influence wages.
Findings
Recommendations:
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