Falling Further Behind: Explaining the Contribution of Post-Secondary Education to the Growth of the Indigenous Income Gap

Falling Further Behind: Explaining the Contribution of Post-Secondary Education to the Growth of the Indigenous Income Gap | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Falling Further Behind: Explaining the Contribution of Post-Secondary Education to the Growth of the Indigenous Income Gap Kevin Mongeon, Janique Dubois This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888276/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Over the past twenty-five years, Canadian federal discourse has increasingly recognized the importance of addressing socioeconomic disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. While the data reveal widespread improvements in Indigenous socioeconomic outcomes, these successes are overshadowed by the reality that Indigenous people continue to lag behind non-Indigenous Canadians on many socioeconomic metrics. Our study aims to better understand the factors that contribute to the ongoing growth of the Indigenous income gap and focuses specifically on the contribution of post-secondary education to the growth of this gap. Using the 2018 National Graduate Survey, we find that the income gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians continues to grow even when we account for equivalent levels of educational attainment. Our results have significant implications for policies, namely related to student loans, university education, and family composition. We ultimately conclude that assessing the effectiveness of policies in targeting the growth of the gap requires a more comprehensive and contextualized understanding of their impact in the everyday lives of Indigenous peoples. Indigenous Economics Grade Gap Socioeconomic Outcomes Indigenous Income National Graduate Survey Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3888276","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":269489097,"identity":"47abfa54-a1a6-41a1-a5a2-3073c3ea9e96","order_by":0,"name":"Kevin Mongeon","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Ottawa","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kevin","middleName":"","lastName":"Mongeon","suffix":""},{"id":269489098,"identity":"cfef2f34-e8cc-4e16-8f86-4ab437ed33d6","order_by":1,"name":"Janique Dubois","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABC0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACxgYGhgNg1gEeBoYEBhvStaQxMLAxE2sfSAsDw2HCWpjbzx488LbNhoHvRu7BBw/+nE/sl+8/+JmnhkGevwGHw3ryEg7ObUtjkLyRl2yQ2HY7cWYbM7M0zzEGwxkHcPklx+Awb9thBoMbOWYSiQ23EzccY2aQzmED+guXlv43IC3/IVoS/pwDaWH+nfOPIUEel5YZYFsOQLWwHQBpYZPObWNIMMCp5Y3BwTnnknkkz7wD+SXZeGZbspn13z4Jw404tBj25xh/eFNmJ8d3PPfgwx9/7GT7mQ8+vjnjm428HC4tDUCCB4xQgQR29UAgz8CARf0oGAWjYBSMAmQAAF1QYMcMXUA9AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Ottawa","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Janique","middleName":"","lastName":"Dubois","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-01-22 14:59:07","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888276/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888276/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":68376439,"identity":"4bee48c7-e2f3-4fc5-b65b-0f43bf4dcac4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-11-06 15:24:06","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":309513,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"IncomeGrowthGapsubmittedJERP.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3888276/v1_covered_45924e76-0069-40b0-b655-5ee5f483ae44.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Falling Further Behind: Explaining the Contribution of Post-Secondary Education to the Growth of the Indigenous Income Gap","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Indigenous Economics, Grade Gap, Socioeconomic Outcomes, Indigenous Income, National Graduate Survey","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888276/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888276/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eOver the past twenty-five years, Canadian federal discourse has increasingly recognized the importance of addressing socioeconomic disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. 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