The overall median entry wage of new immigrants continues to grow in 2022
Released: 2024-12-09
The median entry wage, or median wages for new immigrants in Canada one year after admission, can be a good predictor of their future economic outcomes. From 2021 to 2022, the real median entry wage of newcomers increased by 6.7%, a rate similar to what was observed on average over the previous 10 years for this population. This increase among immigrants occurred amid a dip of 1.6% in the overall real median wage of Canadians in 2022. This can be partly attributed to a notable increase in the proportion of immigrants with pre-admission Canadian work experience, who typically have higher entry wages compared with those moving to Canada for the first time.
This article explores the economic outcomes of recent immigrants in the 2023 Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB). It outlines variations in the economic outcome of newcomers by admission category, pre-admission experience, country of birth and sex. The IMDB is the result of a collaboration between Statistics Canada, Immigration and Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and the provinces.
The median entry wage for new immigrants continued to increase in 2022
The median entry wage of immigrants fluctuated considerably from 2019 to 2021 because of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, the median wage of immigrants admitted a year earlier was $35,500, decreasing to $33,100 in 2020, then rebounding to $40,200 in 2021, and rising again to $42,900 in 2022. From 2021 to 2022, there was a year-over-year increase of 6.7%, which was on par with the average yearly increase observed from 2013 to 2022 (+6.6%). In comparison, the overall median wage of Canadians was $45,380 in 2022, down 1.6% from the previous year after adjusting for inflation.
Despite a decrease in the median entry wage for Canadian Experience Class principal applicants in 2022, it remained one of the highest among all admission categories
Economic principal applicants who are selected for their ability to contribute to Canada's economic development consistently had the highest median entry wage among the four main admission categories. In 2022, the median wage for immigrants in this category admitted a year prior was $52,400, 4.2% lower than the previous year ($54,700), but still higher than what was observed before the pandemic ($48,400 in 2019).
Having work-related pre-admission experience in Canada has been found to help boost the entry wages of immigrants upon landing. This would be expected since most immigrants with pre-admission work experience in Canada already have a job in the country upon admission, while immigrants moving to Canada for the first time may take some time to find a job and experience lower wages one year after their admission.
Canadian Experience Class (CEC) principal applicants, who are selected based on their Canadian work experience, saw their median entry wage decrease by 17.4% from 2021 to $56,400 in 2022, which was their lowest entry wage of the previous 10 years. This could be explained by changes in the characteristics of immigrants admitted in this category, such as their level of education, their language proficiency or their occupational profile. Despite the observed decrease in the median entry wage for CEC principal applicants from 2021 to 2022, their median entry wage remained the highest among all admission categories, on par with skilled workers and skilled trades principal applicants.
In 2021, IRCC specifically invited express entry candidates, who were more likely to be physically located in Canada and therefore less impacted by pandemic-related border restrictions, to apply for permanent residency." This was done, in part, by increasing the number of immigrants admitted through the CEC program, from 25,000 in 2020 to 130,000 in 2021 (+420%). Even though there was a drop in the median entry wage of CEC principal applicants in 2022, the large increase in the number of CEC immigrants in 2021 contributed to the growth of the median entry wage of all new immigrants in 2022 since it remained the category with the highest median entry wage.
Chart 1
Median entry wage of economic principal applicants by specific admission category, tax year 2018 to 2022
Among the other subcategories for economic principal applicants, those admitted as provincial/territorial nominees had the third-highest median entry wage in 2022 at $47,700, followed by those admitted as caregivers ($35,400) and in business programs ($24,500).
In 2022, spouses and dependents of economic immigrants had a median entry wage of $35,700, slightly above the $34,600 observed a year earlier. As well, refugees and immigrants sponsored by family who are selected for other reasons than their economic potential both saw their median entry wage increase by over 10%. From 2021 to 2022, the median wage for refugees admitted a year prior grew by 14.4% to $25,400 and by 10.1% to $30,400 for immigrants sponsored by family.
Immigrants' median entry wage decreased in 2022 for most pre-admission experience categories
The number of new immigrants admitted with both work and study permits prior to admission quadrupled from 2020 to 2021. Most of this growth (71.6%) can be attributed to the increase in CEC principal applicants with work and study pre-admission experience in Canada. Similar to what was observed for principal applicants admitted into the Canadian Experience Class, the median entry wage for immigrants who had both work and study permits dropped by 6.9% from $51,900 in 2021 to $48,300 in 2022.
Immigrants without Canadian work experience also experienced a decline in median entry wages. The median entry wages of immigrants with only a study permit prior to admission (-6.5% to $17,400) and those without pre-admission experience (-9.4% to $27,900) both declined.
Chart 2
Median entry wage by pre-admission experience, tax year 2018 to 2022
On the other hand, immigrants who had only work permits prior to admission saw a slight increase (+2.0%) in their median entry wage in 2022 from the previous year. In 2022, they had the highest median entry wage of all pre-admission experience categories at $52,000. Immigrants who were asylum claimants before admission also saw their median entry wage grow in 2022, reaching $31,000 (+20.1% from the previous year).
Immigrants admitted in 2012 saw their median wage increase by 74.1% over a 10-year period
While entry wage is a good indicator of the economic outcomes of new immigrants, it is important to also consider how their wages evolve over longer periods of time. Immigrants admitted in 2012 saw their median wage grow from $25,900 in 2013 to $45,100 in 2022, a 74.1% increase.
Many factors can affect how wages of immigrants evolve over time. For instance, the wage trajectory of immigrants admitted in 2012 varied considerably among the top five countries of birth. In 2013, the median wage of immigrants admitted a year prior from the Philippines ($31,800), India ($25,300), Pakistan ($19,800) and China ($16,690) was higher than the median wage of those born in Iran ($15,600). However, 10 years later, in 2022, those born in Iran had a median wage of $49,400 which surpassed the median wage of those from the four other countries (Philippines, $46,800; India, $44,900; Pakistan, $32,100; and China, $35,900). The rapid growth in the wages of immigrants from Iran can in part be linked to the finding that they were often admitted in categories that have an above-average growth in wages over time, namely the skilled worker and skilled trades and government-assisted refugee categories.
Chart 3
Median wage of immigrants admitted in 2012 for selected country of birth, tax year 2013 to 2022
The increase in median entry wages in 2022 was three times greater for women than it was for men
The gender wage gap tends to be more pronounced among immigrants who were admitted as adults than among the Canadian-born population. According to data from the latest IMDB, the median entry wage for men increased by 3.8% from $47,000 in 2021 to $48,800 in 2022. In comparison, the increase in the median wage of women admitted a year prior was three times greater than it was for men (+13.2%), up from $32,600 in 2021 to $36,900 in 2022. Thus, in 2022, the median wage gap in the first year after admission between immigrant men and women (24.4%) was much lower than 10 years earlier (36.7%). The increasing educational attainment of immigrant women and their changing industrial and occupational profile have been identified as important factors explaining the narrowing of the gender wage gap among immigrants.
Infographic 1
Median entry wages one year after admission by sex, tax year 2013 to 2022
This gender wage gap also tends to diminish with time spent in Canada. For immigrants admitted in 2012, the median wage for women grew by 93.4% over a 10-year period, reaching $38,300 in 2022, while the median wage for men increased 69.6% and reached $53,100 in 2022. The gender wage gap for the 2012 cohort of immigrants dropped from 36.7% in 2013 to 27.9% in 2022.
This analysis focused on key economic outcomes of immigrants in the IMDB 2023 released today. Understanding the nuances of economic outcomes of newcomers to Canada requires intersectional analysis that can take into account many factors, such as age at immigration, number of years since admission, sex, admission category, pre-admission experience and language proficiency, which is possible when using the IMDB to its full potential.
A second article using data from the IMDB will be released on December 19, 2024, and will discuss the mobility of immigrants. This, along with the release of Canada's population estimates for the third quarter of 2024 on December 17, will shed light on the most recent immigration trends.
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Note to readers
Definitions and concepts
The Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) is a comprehensive source of data that plays a key role in understanding the economic behaviour of immigrants and non-permanent residents. It is the only annual Canadian dataset that allows users to study the characteristics of immigrants to Canada at time of admission and the economic outcomes and regional mobility of immigrants over a period of more than 40 years.
The IMDB is the result of a partnership between Statistics Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and the provinces. The IMDB combines administrative files on immigrant admissions and non-permanent resident permits from IRCC with tax files from the Canada Revenue Agency. IRCC's administrative records contain extensive information on immigrants admitted to Canada since 1952. They also include information on non-permanent residents who have been granted a temporary resident permit since 1980. Tax records for 1982 and subsequent years are available for immigrant taxfilers.
The IMDB links short-term and long-term outcomes to characteristics at admission, such as immigrant admission class, country of birth and knowledge of official languages. The IMDB also provides information on pre-admission experience in Canada and citizenship acquisition since 2004.
It is to be noted that the IMDB is updated annually. From year to year, there have been changes to data processing. Each yearly update is independent.
This release analyzes income based on the medians of wages (for the population with wages, salaries or commissions income, excluding self-employment income). The median is the income threshold at which a half of the immigrant taxfilers have higher income and the other half have lower income. Zero values are not included in the calculation of medians for individuals. All income estimates are expressed in 2022 constant dollars to factor in inflation and enable comparisons across time in real terms.
Median entry wage in this analysis is the median wage reported one year after admission to Canada as a permanent resident.
In this article, the comparison between the evolution of the median entry wage of immigrants and the median wage of the overall Canadian population did not take into account the differences in the characteristics of both populations, such as age and education. However, the overall economic outcomes of the Canadian population remain an important element of context when studying the evolution of the entry wages of immigrants.
Country of birth refers to the name of the geographic location where the person was born. The geographic location is specified according to geographic boundaries current at the time of data collection, not the geographic boundaries at the time of birth.
Taxfilers are immigrants who have filed a tax return for a given taxation year.
Economic immigrant admission categories include immigrants who have been selected for their ability to contribute to Canada's economy through their ability to meet labour market needs, to own and manage or to build a business, to make a substantial investment, to create their own employment or to meet specific provincial or territorial labour market needs.
Immigrant-sponsored family categories include immigrants who were sponsored by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and were granted permanent resident status based on their relationship either as the spouse, partner, parent, grandparent, child or other relative of this sponsor. The terms 'family class' or 'family reunification' are sometimes used to refer to this category.
Refugee categories include immigrants who were granted permanent resident status based on a well-founded fear of returning to their home country. This category includes persons who had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or for political opinion (Geneva Convention refugees) as well as persons who had been seriously and personally affected by civil war or armed conflict, or had suffered a massive violation of human rights. Some refugees were in Canada when they applied for refugee protection for themselves and their family members (either with them in Canada or abroad), while others were abroad and were referred for resettlement to Canada by the United Nations Refugee Agency, another designated referral organization or private sponsors.
Principal applicant is the person submitting the immigration application and the individual being assessed on admission criteria under each of the admission categories, while their accompanying spouse and dependents are admitted automatically with the principal applicant.
For a more detailed description of the immigrant admission categories, see the IRCC Glossary.
Products
The Longitudinal Immigration Database 2023, including the wages and salary module (1997 to 2023), is now available upon request.
The publication "Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) Technical Report, 2023" is now available as part of the series Analytical Studies: Methods and References (11-633-X).
The data visualization tool "Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) Interactive Application: Economic Outcomes" is now available as part of the series Statistics Canada - Data Visualization Products (71-607-X).
The products are available on the Immigrant and Non-Permanent Resident Statistics portal. The portal was designed to provide easy and free access to immigrant and non-permanent resident data and publications.
Information is organized into broad categories including analytical products, data products, reference materials and interactive applications.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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