Intersectional arithmetic: How gender, race and mother tongue combine to impact immigrants’ work outcomes

Abstract

We use an intercategorical approach to intersectionality to quantify pay and attainment of supervisory positions for groups of immigrants and their descendants who also vary in gender, mother tongue, and race. Using a Canadian nationally representative sample of 20,000 employees across 6000 firms, we find a $10,000 spread in annual pay between the groups with the most advantages and those experiencing the most barriers, loosely corresponding to an additive model of intersectional benefits and barriers. The effects of immigrant generation are partially mitigated by the degree to which firms are internationally-oriented, indicating that international businesses may help to reduce inequities.