Statistics Canada has released a new study showing the improvement in the GWG, i.e., the gender wage gap for immigrant women in Canada.
The gender wage gap is generally the difference in hourly pay between Canadian-born men & women working in the same positions. The study further incorporated immigrant men & women into this wage comparison. So, in order to calculate the gender wage gap, Statistics Canada looked at the differences in full-time & part-time earnings depending upon pay distribution & among immigrant women in Canada as an adult v/s as a child.
Overall, immigrant women in Canada who arrived as children narrowed their gap with Canadian-born men from 14.7% to 10.5%. In addition, immigrant women landing in Canada as adults narrowed their gap with Canadian-born men from 27.4% to 20.7%.
Canadian-born women had an age gap of 9.2% as compared to Canadian men in 2022. This is down from 15% in 2007.
Moreover, immigrant women have almost eliminated the gap between themselves & Canadian-born men.
Low v/s High Pay Distribution
Immigrant women in lower pay distribution positions have witnessed an improvement in closing the gender wage gap. On the contrary, those with a high hourly pay distribution have seen no improvement in the gender wage gap since 2007.
For instance, immigrant women in Canada who came as adults with a lower pay distribution reduced their wage gap by 13.7 percentage points from 20.0% to 6.3%.
However, those in the upper end of the pay distribution saw almost no change between 2007 & 2022 at 20.1%. Moreover, immigrant women who arrived as children & worked at the upper end of their pay distributions had a gap of 11.3%.
Furthermore, the gender wage gap is influenced by age. The study notes that there has been an improvement for immigrant women who are between the ages of 25 & 29 who arrived in the nation as adults. The difference has changed from 30.5% to 12.0%.
Immigrant Women In Canada’s Labor Force
Statistics Canada Labor Force survey states that over 26.1% of immigrant women in Canada who came as adults have worked in professional jobs.
Basically, immigrant women in the labor force, specifically racialized women, have traditionally been overrepresented in lower-income roles like accommodation, food services, hospitality, etc.
In addition, the survey data for August 2023 notes that female workers were more likely to be multiple job holders as compared to men who were immigrants & came to Canada less than ten years ago. This implies that recent immigrant women are most likely to be multiple job holders.
Women Less Likely To Be Principal Applicants
Data from 2022 demonstrates that over 1,215,200 women immigrants came to Canada as secondary candidates in an economic immigration program. This implies that they are partners, spouses, or dependents of applicants who applied to immigrate to Canada as a principal applicant in economic immigration programs like Express Entry. In addition, another 1,194,685 immigrant women arrived via a family class sponsorship program.
Statistics Canada asserts that immigrant women who aren’t principal candidates often have difficulty in seeking employment because of their official language skills & the difficulty in having their skills, experience, or education recognized.
Moreover, it notes that many immigrant women also experience gendered obstacles, like discrimination in the labor market, gender division of labor in the family, etc.
Another report by Statistics Canada shows that over 45% of immigrant women in Canada worked full-time when they were part of a couple, wherein the youngest children were between 1-5 years of age. In contrast, over 64% of Canadian-born women in the same situation were employed full-time.
In order to alleviate the gendered burden on women, like childcare, the Canadian government invested over $27 billion over five years as a part of Budget 2021, with the target of building a national early learning & childcare system with territories as well as provinces.
Furthermore, a report by TD Economics released last year in June found that the labor force participation rate among women with children under the age of six has increased by four percentage points since 2020. This implies that over 111,000 additional women have joined the labor force since 2020 as childcare becomes more accessible & workplaces become flexible with hybrid arrangements.