Age and earnings

By May Luong and Benoît-Paul Hébert

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Among full-time full-year workers age 45 to 69 and not receiving a pension, age by itself is not significantly related to hourly earnings once other characteristics are controlled for.

Hourly earnings increase with work experience and, on average, reach a maximum at 25 to 29 years of experience and stabilize thereafter. Overall, work experience is a better predictor of hourly earnings than age.

Men with university degrees earn 36% more per hour than men with non-university postsecondary certificates. However, women of all education levels earn less than their male counterparts.

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