On average, immigrants in Germany earn 19.6 percent less than natives.
Immigrants in Germany and eight other countries – Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA earn considerably less than natives on average. In Germany, the pay gap in the first generation is 19.6 percent. The main reason is not unequal pay for the same job, but rather restricted access to better-paid sectors, professions and companies. These are the conclusions reached by an international study in which researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and an international team analyzed data from 13.5 million immigrants and native workers in nine countries. The study has been published in the journal Nature.
Three quarters of the salary difference are due to the fact that immigrants are more rarely employed in highly-paid sectors or positions. Approximately one quarter of the difference stems from unequal pay within the same company and the same position. “Integration is not only a case of being paid the same for doing the same work. Rather, it is predominantly a case of breaking down barriers preventing immigrants from accessing well-paid areas of employment,” says Prof. Dr. Malte Reichelt, Professorship for Computational Social Science focusing on Social Dynamics at FAU and researcher at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). “Targeted measures such as language lessons, recognition of foreign qualifications, expansion of professional networks and better transmission of information are important to break down structural barriers,” Reichelt continues.
In Germany, there is also a pay gap in the second generation of immigrants, 7.7 percent on average. This difference is smaller than their parents’ generation, but in particular children whose parents are from Africa and the Middle East continue to experience discrimination. In the second generation, the main difference in the discrepancy in pay is largely due to differences in the professions and branches where immigrants work; differences within the same company are only 1.1 percent.
Over all countries examined in the study, immigrants earn on average 17.9 percent less than natives. The difference varies depending on the country: the largest pay gaps in the first generation were noted in Spain with 29.3 percent and Canada with 27.5 percent, followed by Norway with 20.3 percent, Germany with 19.6 percent, France with 19.9 percent and the Netherlands with 15.4 percent. The differences were considerably lower in the USA with 10.6 percent, Denmark with 9.2 percent and Sweden with 7 percent. There are also differences in the second generation, with an average pay gap of 5.7 percent. The largest pay gap in the second generation is Norway with 8.7 percent and the lowest in Canada with 1.9 percent.
The study was conducted by an international team of researchers led by Arne Hermansen (University of Oslo) and involving researchers from Europe and North America. For the first time, it provides a systematic comparison conducted over various countries of the pay gap between immigrants and natives based on administrative data. In total, data from 13.5 million people from nine countries acting as a destination for immigrants (Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, USA) were investigated. The research team included researchers from 15 universities across the globe.
*doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09259-6
Original publicationFurther information:
Prof. Dr. Malte Reichelt
Professorship for Computational Social Science focusing on Social Dynamics
malte.reichelt@fau.de