Income gap widens between rich and poor, newcomers and Canadian-born
The rich have gotten richer, the poor considerably poorer and those new to Canada have gotten further and further behind.
That’s according to a Statistics Canada study based on the 2006 census. Over a period that ended with a long stretch of economic growth — 1980 to 2005 — the median income of Canadians barely nudged upward, from $41,348 in 1980 to $41,401 in 2005 (in 2005 constant dollars).
While income for top earners rose by 16.4 per cent, earnings among lower-income Canadians have fallen by as much as 20.6 per cent.
And just as the gap between the rich and poor has widened in Canada, so has the income gap between immigrants and native-born Canadians, according to Statistics Canada.
For every dollar a Canadian-born man earned in 1980, a male immigrant with the same level of education earned 85 cents. By 2005, that immigrant’s earning had dropped to 63 cents for every dollar earned by his Canadian-born counterpart. For an immigrant woman, the ratio fell from 85 cents per dollar in 1980 to 56 cents per dollar in 2005.
The competitive pressures in the information and communication sector played a key role in driving down wages for immigrant earners, noted the report. A disproportionately high share of immigrants were trained in this sector (9.7 per cent and 40.7 per cent of immigrant men with a university degree were trained in computer science and engineering respectively). Between 2000 and 2005, immigrant men trained in these two occupations saw their earnings decline by 29.2 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, while those with degrees in other fields of study saw a decline of 10.7 per cent.
The gain to be found over that period was among the top earners. The share of full-time workers earning $100,000 or more doubled, from 3.4 per cent in 1980 to 6.5 per cent in 2005, resulting in more than 500,000 individuals earning $100,000 or more in 2005. Those earning $150,000 or more were concentrated in a few occupations, including management, finance, oil extraction, health and law.
Those enjoying the fastest income gain between 2000 and 2005 included managers in primary industries (33 per cent to $97,227 in 2005), pharmacists, dietitians and nutritionists (26.7 per cent to $78,163), and judges, lawyers and Quebec notaries (17.6 per cent to $99,305).
Occupations that have seen a decline in earnings included machine operators in fabric, fur and leather products manufacturing (7.3 per cent to $20,318), labourers in processing, manufacturing and utilities (4.0 per cent to $31,538) and office equipment operators such as data entry clerks, phone operators and desktop publishing operators (2.7 per cent to $31,698).
