Archive · 25 Jul 2025
Immigrant Pay Gap: Study Reveals Disparities in Wealthy Nations
Imagine people moving to new countries to find work.
Studies show that these newcomers often earn less money than people born there.
This happens mostly because they can't get the best jobs.
Some countries have bigger pay differences than others.
The gap is also bigger for people from certain parts of the world.
To fix this, countries should help immigrants get better jobs by providing training and recognizing their skills.
This would benefit everyone, including the immigrants and the countries they move to.
Immigrants in Europe and North America earn nearly 18% less than native-born workers.
The pay gap is largely due to immigrants' limited access to higher-paying jobs.
Spain has the largest pay gap, while Sweden has the smallest.
Immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and North Africa face the largest pay gaps.
Policies focusing on better job access and skills recognition are crucial to address the gap.
- Who
- Immigrants and native-born workers in various countries.
- What
- Immigrants in Europe and North America earn less than native-born workers.
- When
- Data analyzed from 2016 to 2019.
- Where
- Europe and North America (Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United States).
- Why
- Due to limited access to higher-paying jobs and a failure of immigration policies to fully integrate immigrants.
- Average Pay Gap
- 17.9%
- Largest Pay Gap Country
- Spain (over 29%)
- Smallest Pay Gap Country
- Sweden (7%)
- Origin with Highest Gap
- Sub-Saharan Africa (26.1%)
- Origin with Lowest Gap
- Europe, North America (9%)