Spain leads the wage gap: immigrants earn 29% less than natives

BarcelonaThe wage gap between native-born and immigrant workers, caused primarily by the latter's difficulty accessing better-paid professions, is a constant worldwide. In the major European and American economies, where the highest-income countries are located, immigrants earn an average of 18% less than local workers. This figure is even more pronounced in the case of Spain, which leads the statistics with a difference of 29%.

This is according to a study published in the scientific journal Nature, which shows that while it is well known that immigrants from high-income countries often face persistent difficulties in the labor market, while their children experience progress, the cause of these differences—wage gaps—is less well known. That is, whether this disparity between immigrants and natives stems from unequal wages for performing the same work for the employer themselves or is driven by labor market processes that classify immigrant workers into lower-wage jobs.

The article analyzes data from nine countries (the United States, France, Germany, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Spain) and, beyond classifying them according to the level of the gap, shows that inequality in access to higher-wage jobs is the main factor in institutionally and demographically diverse contexts. "Here, using data from nine European and US countries, we show that the segregation of immigrant-origin workers into lower-wage jobs accounts for roughly three-quarters of the total immigrant-native wage gap," the study states.

The entrepreneur's bias

These findings, the study says, highlight the importance of policies aimed at reducing job segregation, such as language training, job training, job search assistance programs, improved access to national education, recognition of foreign qualifications, and settlement programs aimed at improving access to information and networks.

The academic publication also notes that policies targeting employer bias in hiring and promotion decisions are also likely to be effective, while those aimed at ensuring equal pay for equal work may have more limited scope for future progress in reducing the immigrant wage gap.

Smaller gap in the second generation

Spain, with 29.3%, and Canada, with 27.5%, are the countries where first-generation immigrants and natives have the largest gap, followed by Norway (20.3%), Germany (19.6%), France (18.9%), and the Netherlands (15.4%). In contrast, the smallest differences compared to natives were found in the United States (10.6%), Denmark (9.2%), and Sweden (7.0%).

For the second generation, the wage gap had narrowed to an average of 5.7%, although it should be noted that the study does not have data for two of the countries with the largest gap, Spain and France.

By region of origin of immigration, the global average wage gaps were: Sub-Saharan Africa (26.1%), Middle East and North Africa (23.7%), Asia (20.1%), Latin America (18.5%) and Europe, North America and other Western countries (9.0%).