Canadian Pay Gaps

In the article Differences in Employment Income of University Professors, Peter S. Li presents the results of a study conducted, which shows the pay gap between university professors Canada. Li’s goal in this paper is to uncover the factors that influence the earnings of university professors in Canada, and most importantly to determine the reasons behind these differences in earnings, such as gender or visible minority status.

In finding the answers regarding pay gaps between university professors in Canada, Li collects his data from the Analytical File of the 2006 Census of Canada. Although the usual factors for earning disparities include the lack of access to good jobs, the devaluation of foreign credentials and discrimination (Li 40),
The most disadvantaged male visible minority group is Latin American men, who kept this status even after the adjustment for variables. Some groups were shown to have even lower earning after controlling for other variables, for example, West Asian men went from -$3746 to -$9930 after adjusting for other factors (42). Both Caucasian Men and Women made more than their visible minority counterparts, before and after controlling for other variables. Although, Female Caucasian professors still made $2000 below average. Li also discovered that after controlling for other variables, native- born Canadians earned more than Canadians of immigrant status. Because productivity was not measured in this study, Li acknowledged the validity in arguing that these discrepancies could be due to Caucasian counterparts having a higher level of productivity. To weaken this argument, Li conducted another study on university professors in Canada, under the age of 32. Age was considered to be a way in determining the level of productivity, and since professors under 32 are considered to be novices, productivity shouldn’t have a large emphasis on the results. As predicted, the inequalities in pay turned out to be very similar, with Caucasian male professors earning the most. There was one anomaly present, which showed that Women in the “other visible minority” group had the highest gross income level as well as the highest net income level. In conclusion, Li suggests that the most logical explanation for the results is that the unequal pay gap between university professors in Canada is due to (i) differential treatment, in other words, discrimination and (ii)