A recent international study reveals that immigrants in Denmark earn an average of 9.2 percent less than native-born Danes, primarily due to unequal access to high-paying industries. This disparity, while significant, is lower than the average of 17.9 percent across the nine countries analyzed in the study.

The study, published in Nature, examined data from 13.5 million employees and employers across various nations, including Denmark. It highlights structural barriers that impede immigrants’ access to lucrative sectors of the labor market.

According to Associate Professor Lasse Folke Henriksen from Copenhagen Business School (CBS), a co-author of the study, the primary reason for the wage gap is that immigrants face greater difficulty entering high-paying industries and companies. He suggests that policy interventions, such as skills upgrading, language training, and anti-discrimination measures in recruitment and promotion, could address this issue.

The research further indicates that even when an immigrant and a native-born Dane hold the same position with the same employer, immigrants still earn 2.3 percent less. This persistent difference suggests potential biases within the labor market.

The study encompassed data from Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the USA, and Denmark. Spain exhibited the largest wage gap, with immigrants earning 29.3 percent less than native-born Spaniards.