Study finds widening gender gap in wages among post-secondary graduates

2016/07/27 Leave a comment

Interesting study, with appropriately nuanced conclusions:

Eight years after graduating with university bachelor degrees in 2005, males were earning $27,300 more on average than females who graduated at the same time with the same degrees, says a comprehensive new study.

Among college graduates, the wage gender gap was almost as large — $23,600 — and even larger in percentage terms, according to the analysis done by the Education Policy Research Initiative (EPRI), a national research organization based at the University of Ottawa.

The study also debunked a common myth that some university programs have scant real-world value and prepare graduates for little more than low-paid jobs as baristas.

EPRI’s researchers linked student records for more than 620,000 graduates of the University of Ottawa and 13 other universities and colleges to income tax data between 2005 and 2013 to track their earnings. The study found that men who graduated from university in 2005 earned $2,800 more than women in their first year after graduation. By year eight, the earnings gap had widened to $27,300, meaning male graduates were earning 44 per cent more on average than female graduates.

The pattern held in all fields of study, though the gap was highest for graduates in business, engineering, social sciences and science & agriculture. It was smallest for humanities and fine arts graduates.  Women who graduated from health and humanities programs initially earned more than their male counterparts, but fell behind over time.

Among 2005 college diploma graduates, the gender wage gap was $5,500 in the first year. By year eight, men were earning 56 per cent more than female graduates, a gap of $23,600.

Further analysis could shed light on at least some of the complex reasons for the wage gap, said University of Ottawa professor Ross Finnie, EPRI’s director.

One might be that men and women are focusing on different things within the same broad area of study, and the areas that women choose don’t have as much earnings growth over time, Finnie said.

Another could be the life choices that men and women make, he said. For example, women are more likely to drop out of the workforce temporarily to have children, then work part-time afterward.

“They lose labour market experience and sometimes the labour market punishes people because of that.” And to some degree, “pure labour market discrimination” is likely part of the explanation as well, Finnie said. “It’s a combination of all those things.”

Source: Study finds widening gender gap in wages among post-secondary graduates

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Immigrants value education – so we should value them

2016/01/08 Leave a comment

MiC Deck - Dec 2015.030More evidence that immigrants and their children tend to be more well-educated than “old stock” Canadians. The above chart shows the same results using the 2011 NHS by visible minority group from my book:

In the past month, Canadians have witnessed the arrival of the first of 25,000 Syrian refugees expected to make a new home here by the end of February. More may be arriving after that.

The main theme in the news media so far has been the debate about the short-term costs and challenges of bringing such a substantial number of immigrants from a war-torn region, as well as longer-term concerns about the possibility of raising future generations of “home-grown” terrorists.

In our recent research on this subject, we take a different longer-term perspective in addressing how the children of immigrants perform in terms of postsecondary education (PSE) in Canada. This is important because PSE is critical, not only to an individual’s economic and social success, but also to the country’s prosperity.

Our analysis shows that first- and second-generation children of immigrants access PSE at much higher rates than non-immigrant youth. By the age of 21, 86 per cent of first-generation children of immigrants (that is, those who themselves immigrated to Canada along with their parents) obtained postsecondary education, with 84 per cent of second-generation immigrants (those born in Canada to immigrant parents) doing the same.

This record on the part of the children of immigrants compares favourably to the 72-per-cent PSE participation rate among non-immigrant youth. For those from the region that includes Syria, 93 per cent and 96 per cent of first- and second-generation children of immigrants, respectively, had moved into postsecondary education by the age of 21, with most having attended university rather than college or trade school.

Source: Immigrants value education – so we should value them – The Globe and Mail

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