How Does Years Since Immigration to the U.S.A. Affect Hourly Wage?

The United States is the country that attracts most of the world’s immigration population. This paper serves as a foundation to fulfill the gap from existing studies by exploring the relationship between immigration year and the earnings of immigrants, measured by hourly wage in US dollars. The paper analyzes cross-sectional data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). It concludes with a quadratic empirical model that the relationship between immigration duration and hourly wage is positive but non-linear, with diminishing marginal returns over time. These finding sheds light on the importance of the relationship between the duration of residency in the United States and the earnings of immigrants and provides guidance for future social policy reforms by taking consideration of the race, educational attainment, and gender of the immigrants.