Wage gap between university and high school graduates narrows in past decade

According to a new Statistics Canada study, after growing from 1980 to 2000, the wage gap between university- and secondary-school-education individuals decreased from 2000 to 2011, especially among workers under age 35. This decrease was driven by more rapidly rising wages among the less-educated, a reversal of the trend of earlier decades, the study notes. The narrowing of the gap was associated with a shift in labour demand toward industries such as construction, mining, and oil and gas extraction, which are less intensive users of highly-educated workers. Nevertheless, on average highly-educated workers still earn more than their less-educated peers. Study