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August 24, 2025Open Access

The Impact of Educational Credentials on the Income Gap between Indigenous and Non‐Indigenous Recent Graduates

Key Points

Increasing educational credentials contributes to narrowing the income gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous graduates, and suggests higher university attainment can lead to better outcomes.
Graduates with university degrees, particularly in fields with Indigenous representation, may see reduced income disparities in early career phases.
This observational analysis uses data from the National Graduate Survey for cohorts from 2015 and 2020, focusing on the varying impact of educational levels.
The findings point to the need for policies targeting Indigenous educational attainment and improving market returns for their credentials in local contexts.

Abstract

Abstract This study uses data from two National Graduate Survey (NGS) cohorts—graduates of 2015 and graduates of 2020—to investigate how educational credentials impact differences in early career income between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous post‐secondary graduates in Canada and whether these differences are conditional on the labour market returns to education credentials. The results suggest that increasing educational attainment (i.e., university, and more specifically graduate, degrees) as well as increasing Indigenous presence in certain fields of study could contribute to reducing early career income gaps. The empirical findings support calls for broad‐based policies aimed at expanding Indigenous university attainment and raising labour market returns to Indigenous graduates' credentials as well as distinctions‐based policies tailored to local contexts.

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