Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Is There Really A Foreign Language Premium In Canada?: Evaluating The Foreign Language Effect On Canadian Wages, Peter C. Ki

Undergraduate Economic Review

Given the debates on whether knowing a foreign language has a positive or negative effect on wages, there is little or no research conducted on how it fares in Canada, despite extensive studies on French and English. Using the Public Use Microdata Files of the 2011 National Household Survey by Statistics Canada, I find a 2.84% wage penalty for Canadians who know a foreign language and an even greater penalty for Canadians who use these languages at work. I proceed to decompose the results by language and occupation to find varying results. I also attempt to use a religion proxy …