Weekly earnings, by age and immigrant status

The earnings gap is slightly greater for women and it widens with age

• Among male employees aged 25 to 54 years who were working mainly full time in 2000, the Canadian-born had average weekly earnings of $1,006; in comparison, recent immigrants earned 19% less ($817). Women's earnings were lower than those of their male counterparts, and immigrant women earned 20% less than those born in Canada ($589 versus $736).
• The earnings gap also expanded with age. Among 25- to 34-year-old men, recent immigrants earned 6% less than non-immigrants; for women in this age group, the difference was 12%. In contrast, among employees aged 45 to 54 years, the differentials increased to 29% for men and 31% for women.
• For both native-born Canadians and recent immigrants aged 25 to 54 years, average weekly earnings tended to increase with education level. For example, recent immigrants with less than a high school diploma earned on average $517 per week, compared with $844 for those with a university degree; their Canadian-born counterparts had weekly earnings of $711 and $1,218, respectively. However, the earning gap was more pronounced among university graduates, where recent immigrants earned 31% less than those born in Canada.

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