# Wage Disparities across Immigrant Generations: Education, Segregation, or Unequal Pay?

## TL;DR

The paper examines why immigrants and their children earn less than natives in Norway, finding that lower wages are mainly due to job sorting rather than unequal pay for the same work.

## Contribution

The study identifies that wage disparities between immigrants and natives are largely due to occupational sorting rather than within-job pay gaps, with improvements across generations.

## Key findings

- Immigrant-native wage disparities mainly result from sorting into lower-paying jobs rather than unequal pay for the same work.
- Wage disadvantages decrease significantly across immigrant generations, especially when doing the same job for the same employer.
- Within-job pay differences are similar across labor market segments, despite more meritocratic sorting in certain professions and sectors.

## Abstract

Immigrants and their native-born children often face considerable wage penalties relative to natives, but less is known about whether this inequality arises through differences in educational qualifications, segregation across occupations and establishments, or unequal pay for the same work. Using linked employer–employee data from Norway, the authors ask whether immigrant–native wage disparities 1) reflect differences in detailed educational qualifications, labor market segregation, or within-job pay differences; 2) differ by immigrant generation; and 3) vary across different segments of the labor market. They find that immigrant–native wage disparities primarily reflect sorting into lower-paying jobs, and that wage disadvantages are considerably reduced across immigrant generations. When doing the same work for the same employer, immigrant-background workers, especially children of immigrants, earn similar wages to natives. Sorting into jobs seems more meritocratic for university graduates, for professionals, and in the public sector, but within-job pay differences are strikingly similar across market segments.