How wide is the gap? Examining gender income disparities among private career college graduates

Abstract

Research on gender wage gaps among recent graduates in Canada has ignored the private career college (PCC) sector. By virtue of the structure, composition and positioning of PCCs in Canada, along with the occupations they service, we argue that PCC graduates are an interesting population through which to study gender disparities. Drawing on an underutilized but rich dataset, we perform a series of exploratory multivariate analyses and estimate a gender income gap of approximately 5.3%. Though modest, this gap survives extensive robustness checks, with few notable exceptions. We theorize the implications of our findings for future policymaking and research.