Busting the Myth that Quebec Anglophones Earn More than Francophones

Jack Jedwab, Executive Director Association for Canadian Studies

May 3, 2010

Introduction
The 1960’s and 1970’s was a period marked by profound economic and social transformation within Quebec society. One of the issues that the political leadership of that era sought to address was the chronic disparity in income between Quebec’s English and French populations (then more often referred to as British or French). The widely documented income disparities between the groups were attributed by some to economic problems encountered by francophones in attempting to access capital while others maintained that there were cultural factors that accounted for the inferior income of francophones-that is, they simply were not attracted to entrepreneurial activity. Clearly the “cultural explanation” has proven unfounded with the rapid progress achieved by many francophones when the Government of Quebec moved to make capital and economic opportunity more accessible to the French population.
Yet the idea that anglophones possess a comparative income advantage over Quebec francophones persists some fifty years after the Quiet Revolution. That which follows will examine the results of a survey commissioned by the Association for Canadian Studies and the Quebec Community Groups Network from the firm Leger Marketing that asks Quebecers whether they believe that on average, anglophones earn more than francophones, francophones earn more than anglophones, they both earn the same or they are unaware. The responses are then compared to the actual results for data on average income collected from the 2006 census by Statistics Canada.
The field dates for the survey were 19^th – 26^th March 2010. All surveys were carried out via a representative online panel and a similar phone poll would yield a maximum margin of error of 3.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Survey Results

When the data was broken down by language spoken at home, one observes that less than one percent of francophone respondents believe that the majority language group earns more than anglophones. Almost a third of them (29%) claim that they don’t know. English speakers generally feel that that earn as much as Francophones (29%), but, like the Francophone respondents, almost 2 in 5 (40%) don’t know.

Those with a higher income were more likely to have an opinion on which language group earned more.

Looking at the respondents on the basis of geography, every single municipality and sub-region (except Western) are more likely to believe that English speakers earn more than French speakers. This opinion is most apparent in the Montreal and Eastern regions of Quebec. Once again a highly significant percentage (32%) of respondents claimed that they didn’t know the answer to this question.

When looking at the level of education of respondents those with more schooling were more likely to think that Anglophones earn more than Francophones. The only exception were those with PhD’s, one-quarter of whom responded that Francophones earn more than Anglophones.

The Gap Between Perception and Reality: Results on Income from the 2006 Census

A geographic comparison of the earnings of French and English speakers in the Province is much more demonstrative of the overall trend. Going through the table, we find that except for Hampstead, every other region has French speakers earning more (sometimes significantly so) than English speakers.