44
However, given a particular level of education, Aboriginal Canadians still have on
average a lower income than non-Aboriginal Canadians. In other words, educational attainment
cannot account for all of the wage gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians. In fact,
if the Aboriginal population aged 15 and over in 2001 had the same educational profile as the
non-Aboriginal population, they would still earn on average only 81.7 per cent of non-Aboriginal
employment income. While they earned an average income of $12,886 with their educational
attainment in 2001, they would earn $16,113 on average if they had the non-Aboriginal level of
educational attainment. This is still $3,614 lower than the average non-Aboriginal employment
income. Therefore, the educational attainment gap can explain 47.3 per cent of the employment
income gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations (Appendix Table 53).
In general, Aboriginal Canadians had an average income equivalent to only 65.2 per cent
of the level of non-Aboriginals in 2001. The situation is slightly better when considering only
individuals with employment income: the average income for Aboriginal Canadians in this case
represents 69.1 per cent that of non-Aboriginal Canadians. Finally, the employment income of
Aboriginal Canadians who worked full-time full-year was on average only 87.2 per cent that of
non-Aboriginal Canadians. As explained above, only about half of this gap can be attributed to
education. Comparing the income of the aboriginal population in relation to the average
Canadian at a given level of education allows us to focus on the remaining part of the gap, that
which is not directly associated to educational attainment.
Chart 10: Average Employment Income of the Aboriginal Population Who
Work Full Time, Full Year, as a Share of the Non-Aboriginal Population, 2001
Less than grade 9 Grade 9 to 13, without Grade 9 to 13, with Post-secondary, with Post- TOTAL
certificate certificate certificate secondary, without
Source: Census 2001 certificate
Note: The total is a weighted average of the five other values.
In 2001, Aboriginal Canadians with less than grade 9 fare especially well when compared
to the non-Aboriginals at the same level of educational attainment, with an average employment
income 88.7 per cent of the non-Aboriginal level (Chart 9). However, this drops to 72.0 per cent