Colour My World: Have Earnings Gaps for Canadian-Born Ethnic Minorities Changed Over Time?

Using the census main bases from 1971 through 1996, we estimate earnings equations for Canadian-born female and male workers to assess the size of white­Aboriginal and white­visible minority earnings differentials in Canada. These databases allow us to focus on the small populations of Canadian-born visible minority and Aboriginal workers in Canada and on eight large Canadian metropolitan areas. We also define quasi-cohorts to assess differences in age-earnings relationships, and examine differences across 26 subgroups within the white and visible minority categories. We find that differentials narrowed through the 1970s, were stable through the 1980s, and grew between 1991 and 1996.