Grades and labour market earnings in Canada: new evidence from the 2018 national graduates survey

Abstract

This study examines how postsecondary education grades influence the labour market earnings of workers in Canada, and the moderating effects of field of study, level of study, gender, work experience while schooling, and other postsecondary educational qualification acquired since graduation. This study analyses cross-sectional data from the Public Use Microdata File of the 2018 National Graduates Survey (NGS) which follows the 2015 cohort of graduates three years after graduation. Unlike previous waves of the NGS, the 2018 data contain explicit information on the final grades obtained in postsecondary education programs. Using a two stage least square regression method, findings indicate that the overall grade point average is positively related to earnings, and this result is robust to model specification. This suggests that higher grades are important as they do translate into higher labour market earnings.