Shattering Social Assumptions

"Descriptive studies like this are like paintings -- different people will see different things in the numbers."

"But the reality is that what lies behind the earnings differences reported is nuanced, complex, and largely unknown."

"It's almost a fundamentally unidentified problem. [Rather then automatically believing gaps in earnings and education to be rooted in] injustice or unfairness [it is important to remember] people make different choices."

Mikal Skuterud, economist, University of Waterloo

 

"[The report set out to measure weekly incomes of Canadian-born people between the ages of 25 to 44 in 2016, a census year, based on a dozen visible minority categories. as a setting for the country's Anti-Racism Strategy, committed to] removing barriers and promoting a country where every person is able to fully participate and have an equal opportunity to proceed."

"Only about one in twenty [visible minority members] live in smaller cities, towns and rural areas, compared with about one in three white people." 

StatsCan Report, Theresa Qiu and Grant Schellenberg

People of colour born in Canada are more likely than white people to have university degrees. That contributes to higher earnings. Photo by Handout /Vancouver Sun

Statistics Canada has issued its latest report emanating from research on ethnic groups, focusing on earnings and educational achievements. Their results challenge the fairly universal social belief in discrimination in the workplace against visible minorities and people from ethnic minorities holding back advancement. What the report points out is that earnings vary widely for each ethnic cohort studied; some groups clearly flourishing, and others struggling to attain earnings parity.

Those of South Korean, Chinese and South Asian heritage appear to represent the top echelon of earners in Canada by and large, while Latin-American and Black groups tend to be among the lowest earners. Whites, on the other hand, are stuck for the most part in the middle of the pack with respect to wages and surprisingly enough are in the lower echelons regarding university education.

Such details, according to economist Frances Woolley of Carleton University, are critical to understanding the situation pertaining to achievement in both these areas regarding visible minorities. The federal Employment Equity Act places visible minorities as one of four groups covered; women, people with disabilities and Indigenous Canadians, make up the other three.

White Canadians were used as a majority baseline, enabling the report to pinpoint that some ethnic groups are performing significantly better than others in earnings and education. Striking differences between men and women is examined as is how people of colour tend to overwhelmingly choose to live in major cities in Canada.

The report also gently turns the table on preconceptions over outcomes being directly responsible by the presence in workplaces and educational opportunities by racist workplace supervisors or discriminatory educators. Outcomes in both areas are far more likely to be the result of complex life decisions people tend to make, for those people who fail to move up the ladder of opportunity.

According to the report, most visible-minority Canadian women earn more than do white females, whose average was $1,120 weekly. Korean-Canadian women earned $1,450 a week while Chinese women earned $1,440; South Asian women $1,360;and Arab and Iranian women, $1,120. Black women on the other had, earned less, at $1,080, and Latin-American women made $1,000 a week.

Slightly more was earned by Korean, Japanese and South Asian men than white males, who took in $1,530, while Chinese-Canadian men earned about the same and Filipino and South-East Asian men earned roughly 15 percent less than white males, and Latin-Americans and Black males earned about 20 percent less.

When variables such as age, place of residence and educational levels are taken into account, other issues remain significant. The Statistics Canada report makes no suggestion where discrimination might be occurring in Canada, but both Schellenberg and Skuterud feel the data appears to raise at minimum one red flag: Black males fell further behind others in earnings in the period between 2006 and 2016.

Another surprise: People of colour born in Canada are likelier than are white people to gain university degrees. Over 60 percent of Chinese and Korean men earned a bachelor's degree at the very least, or  higher, in comparison to 24 percent of white males, a gulf in educational attainment considered "astonishing", by Dr.Skuterud. Over 40 percent of South Asian, Arab, West Asian and Japanese men sought and gained university degrees.

The only ethnic groups less likely to have degrees as compared to white males were Black males, at 20 percent, and Latin-American males at 17 percent. And then there is the different lifestyle choices made by people of colour and whites, where 60 percent of all people of colour in Canada choose to live in just three cities; Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, in comparison to a mere 27 percent of white people.

One reason many people of colour earn more than do white people, is the very fact that they live in metropolises where wages tend to be higher. White people, found the authors, were also likelier to be married, have children and not be living with their parents. U.S. research in particular has explored whether employers discriminate based on race or ethnicity, despite which, Dr.Skuterud points out "It's almost a fundamentally unidentifiable problem."

Sixty per cent of all people of colour in Canada live in just three cities — Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver — where wages are generally higher. That compares to only 27 per cent of white people. Photo by KENA BETANCUR /AFP via Getty Images