Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Releases Report on Racial Income Inequality
/The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released a report entitled Canada’s Colour Coded Income Inequality, which sheds new light on income inequalities faced by racialized Canadians.
The report uses 2016 Census data to compare work and income trends among racialized and non-racialized Canadians. Overall, the report finds significant barriers remain entrenched along racial and gender lines, with little change between 2006-16. The paper also looks beyond the labour market more broadly at economic inequality including differences in income from investments and capital between racialized and non-racialized Canadians.
Among the findings:
Despite higher rates of labour force participation, racialized workers face a higher unemployment rate (9.2%) than non-racialized workers (7.3%) in Canada.
The disparity doesn’t change when they’re hired. Racialized workers are often paid less than their non-racialized colleagues, with racialized men earning 78 cents and racialized women earning 59 cents for every dollar earned by non-racialized men.
While 12.2% of non-racialized individuals have incomes below the low-income measure (LIM), over 20% of racialized individuals in Canada have incomes below the LIM.
Racialized income inequality impacts the financial stability of workers’ families. As a result, racialized families are 60% more likely to be in the bottom half of income distribution in Canada.
For the full report, click here.
