Workers with North African heritage have lower earnings

A new study for Dares, the research agency of the French labour ministry, has found that the descendants of immigrants from North Africa (the Maghreb) earn 7.7% less an hour than those without a migration background.

If the calculation is based on annual earnings, the gap between the two groups rises to 22.4%. The gap is much greater for annual earnings because workers descended from immigrants from the Maghreb are employed for just 1,174 hours a year, 17.0% less than the 1,415 hours a year worked by those without a migrant background.

The study, The dynamic of the wage gap between natives and descendants of immigrants in France, produces additional figures which take account of factors such as age, sex and location. But even on this basis, workers whose antecedents came from the Maghreb still earn 5.2% less per hour and 18.6% less per year than those without a migrant background.

One encouraging trend that emerges from the study is that the pay gap has decreased over time and is smaller for workers born later.

https://dares.travail-emploi.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/635ec6944c9d60921baf16b23c0fb136/DE%20The%20Dynamic%20of%20the%20wage%20gap.pdf