Motherhood Wage Research Articles

The motherhood wage and income traps

The motherhood wage and income traps

Can fertility decline help explain gender pay convergence?

Abstract Prior scholarship demonstrates that motherhood wage penalties and fatherhood wage premiums contribute to the gender pay gap. These analyses typically take a cross-sectional perspective, asking to what extent gender inequalities in the association between parenthood and wages can explain gender pay inequality for a given cohort or at a given moment in time. By contrast, explorations of gender pay convergence over time have tended to start at the firm’s door, testing the explanatory power of changes in men’s and women’s human capital and job characteristics and neglecting the contributions of fertility change. We bring these two strands of research together, asking to what extent declines 1980–2018 in US employees’ number of children can explain gender pay convergence over the same period. Using a descriptive decomposition and data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we show that, in gross terms, fertility decline can explain almost one-quarter of gender pay convergence from 1980 to 2018. Even net of a host of controls for human capital and job characteristics, fertility decline explains 8 percent of the attenuation of the US gender pay gap 1980–2018—about half as much as changes in education and about a quarter as much as changes in full-time work experience and job tenure combined. Finally, we show that employees’ fertility decline was fastest in the 1980s and subsequently slowed; this, in conjunction with persistent gender differences in parenthood–wage associations, helps explain stalled progress toward gender pay parity.

The role of non‐base compensation in explaining the motherhood wage gap: Evidence from Italy

AbstractThis paper underlines the importance of accounting for non‐base compensation in explaining the motherhood wage gap. We consider two alternative measures of hourly wage using Italian EU‐SILC data from 2007 to 2019: the base‐wage and the full‐wage. The former refers to the contractual base wage, while the latter includes performance‐based bonuses, productivity bonuses, commissions, pay incentives, and other extra payments. We address the endogeneity issues of motherhood and examine the effect of motherhood status across various quantiles of the wage distribution for the two hourly wage measures. Empirical findings provide evidence of a motherhood base‐wage premium, which becomes nonsignificant when using the full‐wage measure, suggesting that non‐base compensation is a source of inequality for mothers. These findings are consistent across the wage distribution. Exploring potential heterogeneity across macro‐regions and periods, we find no notable regional disparities except minor distinctions for the Southern regions, alongside a decline in the base‐wage premium over time and the emergence of a full‐wage penalty in recent years. A comparative analysis with a sample of men reveals that fathers enjoy a premium with both wage measures. Nevertheless, fatherhood is also associated with reduced extra remunerations, yet to a lesser extent than motherhood.

American Rural–Nonrural Differences in Motherhood Wage Penalties

A rich body of literature has studied variances in motherhood wage penalties. Yet studies have not explored American rural–nonrural differences in this phenomenon. The spatial differences in women's experiences deserve exploration. Based on prior studies, rural mothers may experience greater wage penalties than nonrural mothers because of their high marriage rates, low educational levels, and the traditional gender attitudes and norms in rural communities. However, they may experience smaller penalties because rural job structures lack diversity and jobs there tend to be low‐paid. This paper uses fixed‐effects models to examine the rural–nonrural differences in motherhood wage penalties, with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). The results show that although rural women reported lower education levels and higher marriage rates than nonrural women, they experienced smaller motherhood wage penalties than nonrural women partially because they were more likely to work in low‐paid occupations and industries.

Gender and Parenthood Differences in Job Mobility and Pay Progression in the UK

Abstract Understanding disparities in the rates at which men and women’s wages grow over the life course is critical to explaining the gender pay gap. Using panel data from 2009 to 2019 for the United Kingdom, we examine how differences in the rates and types of job mobility of men and women—with and without children—influence the evolution of wages. We contrast the rates and wage returns associated with different types of job moves, including moving employer for family reason, moving for wage or career-related reasons, and changing jobs but remaining with the same employer. We find important gender and parenthood differences in the types of mobility experience, with mothers most likely to switch employers for family-related reasons and least likely to move for wage or career reasons, or to change jobs with the same employer. While job changes with the same employer and career related employer changes had large positive wage returns, changing employers for family-related reasons was associated with significant wage losses. We show that differences in job mobility between mothers and other workers are largest for young employees (under 30), the period over which wages also grow most rapidly in response to career related external, or internal, job moves. These mobility differences play an important role in explaining the rapid growth in the motherhood wage gap in the years after birth.

Research Note: New Evidence on the Motherhood Wage Penalty

U.S. women's age at first birth has increased substantially. Yet, little research has considered how this changing behavior may have affected the motherhood pay penalty, or the wage decrease with a child's arrival, experienced by the current generation. Using Rounds 1–19 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), in this research note we examine shifts in hourly pay with childbirth for a cohort of women who became mothers mostly in the 2000s and 2010s. Results from fixed-effects models indicate that the motherhood pay penalty for NLSY97 women who had their first child before their late 20s is generally similar to that of previous cohorts. Those who became mothers near or after age 30, however, encounter a parenthood premium, as men do. The growing proportion of women delaying motherhood, coupled with the rising heterogeneity in motherhood wage outcomes by childbearing timing, contributes to a comparatively small motherhood penalty for this recent cohort. The pay advantage of “late mothers” cannot be explained by factors such as their labor market locations, number of children, stage of childrearing, marital status, or ethnoracial composition. Instead, the hourly gain stems from such mothers’ tendency to reduce working hours more than other mothers without experiencing a commensurate decrease in total pay. Unlike the fatherhood premium, the premium for late mothers does not lead to a real boost in income.

How Does Fertility Relaxation Policy Affect the Anticipation of Motherhood Wage Penalty

How Does Fertility Relaxation Policy Affect the Anticipation of Motherhood Wage Penalty

Is the Gender Wage Gap Really a Family Wage Gap in Disguise?

Despite large literatures on gender and family wage gaps (e.g., the motherhood wage penalty, fatherhood wage premium, and the marriage premium) and widespread recognition that the two gaps are intertwined, the extent and pattern of their relationships are underexplored. Using data from the 2018 Survey of Income and Program Participation, we show that family wage gaps are strongly associated with the gender wage gap, as long assumed in the literature, but with important caveats. The gender-differentiated wage returns to parenthood contribute 29 percent of the gender wage gap. One third of this is associated with occupation, but very little with other worker and job attributes. The gender-differentiated returns to marriage contribute another 33 percent, two thirds of which is associated with worker and job attributes but very little with occupation. However, 36 percent of the gender wage gap is unrelated to these family wage gaps, and the gender wage gap among childless workers remains substantial. Moreover, for Black and Hispanic workers, the pattern of association is more complex and generally weaker than for White workers. These results caution against focusing solely on the wage gap between “mothers and others” and suggest new directions for research.

From fatherhood premium to motherhood penalty: trends in the fertility effects on men's and women's wage in China (1989–2015)

Investigating the impact of fertility on the wage earnings of men and women and its trends is important for understanding and coping with both the widening gender wage gap and the continuously declining fertility rate in China. Through an in-depth analysis of China Health and Nutrition Survey data from 1989 to 2015, the study finds that in the late 1980s, fertility had a significant positive impact on the wage earnings of men in China, while the negative impact on women's wages was not significant. Over time, the fatherhood wage premium has been declining, while the motherhood wage penalty has been rising at a faster rate, and the gender wage gap has been widening. The expansion of the market sector in China since the deepening of reforms in 1992 is an important reason for the rapid increase of motherhood wage penalty.

Gendered Divergence in the Impact of Parenthood on Wages: The Role of Family Size, Human Capital and Working Time

While gender pay disparity is a frequently researched area, few have focused on how parenthood and family size impact the wages of mothers and fathers together. The purpose of this study is therefore to take a broader view of this pivotal topic, one which has continued relevance as governments and organisations seek to advance gender equality. The findings show clear gendered divergence in the impact of parenthood on wages, with ‘motherhood wage penalties’ and ‘fatherhood wage premiums’ in both annual and hourly wage. The widest gap in earnings between women and men occurs at three or more children even when human capital and labour market selectivity factors are controlled for. For women, the largest penalty occurs at one and three or more children while for men, having two children represents the peak point in terms of wage gains to parenthood. Accounting for working time through hourly wage estimations narrows but does not eliminate parental wage gaps, pointing to other factors such as occupational segregation.

Dynamic work trajectories and their interplay with family over the life course.

This review examines major bodies of literature, interrelated but usually considered separately, focused on work trajectories and their intersections with family dynamics through the life course. It begins with a consideration of the life course paradigm, which draws attention to the temporal dimensions of human lives, and recently developed analytic techniques that are well-suited to empirical investigation of life course transitions and trajectories over time. The review proceeds to examine empirical research on work career mobility (including both inter- and intra-generational mobility) measured as either trajectories of continuous outcomes or sequences of categorical outcomes, and their long-term consequences for socioeconomic attainment. Work-family trajectories are then addressed, focusing on the impacts of family on work, notably expressed in the motherhood wage penalty, and how family structure and processes affect long-term labor market outcomes. Research documents considerable heterogeneity in work-family dynamics over the life course across social groups with unequal resources. The review concludes with an assessment of the interplay of work and family trajectories studied longitudinally and makes recommendations for future research. It is argued that while extant studies of the work-family interface are compatible with, and sometimes deliberately reflect, a life course perspective, these bodies of research would benefit from more fully incorporating the life course principles of "agency" and "time and place".

Taking the long view: Long‐term couple earnings arrangements across the transition to parenthood

AbstractThis paper examines household earnings arrangements and parenthood. Previous research has shown that parenthood is associated with a motherhood wage penalty with women withdrawing from the labour market or reducing their work hours. But few studies have examined within‐couple relative earnings and breadwinning arrangements across the transition to parenthood. We identify three types of households—“female‐breadwinner households” (where women earn more than 60 per cent of the couple's annual labour income); “male‐breadwinner households” (where women earn less than 40 per cent of the joint income); and “equal‐earner households” (where women earn 40 per cent to 60 per cent of the joint income). Using longitudinal data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey and fixed effects models, we find a substantial decrease in the percentage of couples in equal‐earner households in the year prior to and after parenthood that is largely replaced by an increase in the percentage in male‐breadwinner households. We observe little return to pre‐parenthood earnings arrangements for equal‐earner and male‐breadwinner households. For female‐breadwinner households, we observe a gradual return to pre‐parenthood arrangements. These results provide evidence that parenthood is a major milestone contributing to gender inequality and highlight the importance of policies for reducing the impact of parenthood on women's earnings.

Childbearing Risk, Job Sectors, and the Motherhood Wage Penalty

Childbearing Risk, Job Sectors, and the Motherhood Wage Penalty

The Motherhood Wage Penalty and Female Entrepreneurship

The need to resolve work–family conflict has long been considered a central motive for women’s pursuit of entrepreneurship. In this paper, we propose and empirically uncover a novel mechanism driving female entrepreneurship: reduced earnings opportunities in wage employment due to motherhood status. Combining insights from career mobility research and the motherhood penalty literature, we propose that women who become mothers will disproportionately launch a new business to reduce the motherhood penalty they would otherwise incur in wage work due to employer discrimination. We further predict that this tendency to launch a new venture will be more pronounced for women who occupy high-paying or managerial positions, given the higher opportunity cost of staying in wage work and the higher potential payoffs from entrepreneurship that accrue mothers occupying such positions. Using matched employer–employee data from Sweden that distinguish new-venture founding from self-employment, we find support for our arguments. Overall, this study sheds light on the two antecedents of female entrepreneurship and contributes to a more thorough understanding of what motivates women to pursue irregular and atypical careers, such as entrepreneurship. Funding: This work was supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (Ewing Marion Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship) and the Wharton Dean’s Research Fund. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1657 .

The Motherhood Wage and Income Traps

The Motherhood Wage and Income Traps

The Motherhood Wage and Income Traps

The Motherhood Wage and Income Traps

The Effect of Motherhood on Wages: are women’s wage penalties due to lack of career aspirations?

ABSTRACT Mothers’ wages tend to be lower than those of equivalent childless women, and many researchers have reported on this ‘motherhood wage penalty’. We explore the relationship between pre-school children and their mothers’ wages to estimate the short-term effects of the ‘motherhood wage penalty’ and test the mechanisms of the ‘motherhood wage penalty’ in terms of changes in mothers’ mindsets. In addition, a novel instrumental variable was found. Based on data from the China Family Panel Studies, we find that children in China have a significant negative impact on the increase in mothers’ wages. The penalty is most severe for the low-income group. The reduction in mothers’ career enthusiasm after childbirth explains only 3.5% of the wage gap, suggesting that the wage penalty for mothers may come mainly from extrinsic factors. In addition, we find that grandparent care and the establishment of public childcare centres are effective in mitigating the ‘motherhood wage penalty’, and that delaying retirement may be detrimental to mothers’ wage increases.

Quantile regression estimands and models: revisiting the motherhood wage penalty debate

AbstractThis paper discusses the crucial but sometimes neglected differences between unconditional quantile regression (UQR) models and quantile treatment effects (QTE) models. We argue that there is a frequent mismatch between the aim of the quantile regression analysis and the quantitative toolkit used in much of the applied literature, including the motherhood wage penalty literature. This mismatch may result in wrong conclusions being drawn from the data, and in the end, misguided theories. In this paper, we clarify the crucial conceptual distinction between influences on quantiles of the overall distributions, which we term population-level influences, and individual-level QTEs. Further, we use data simulations to illustrate that various classes of quantile regression models may, in some instances, give entirely different conclusions (to different questions). Finally, we compare quantile regression estimates using real data examples, showing that UQR and QTE models differ sometimes but not always. Still, the conceptual and empirical distinctions between quantile regression models underline the need to match the correct model to the specific research questions. We conclude the paper with a few practical guidelines for researchers.

The Wage Penalty for Motherhood in Spain (2009-2017): The Role of the Male Partner’s Job Characteristic

Exploiting microdata from the Living Conditions Survey, and applying the coarsened exact matching algorithm to select a treatment and a control group of comparable women, we analyse the motherhood wage penalty in Spain from 2009 to 2017, with special attention to the effect of the male partner’s job characteristics. We find that mothers of children 0-3 years old suffered a penalty in their hourly wages of around 4.2%, which significantly increased when their partner was self-employed. Moreover, we only detect a wage penalty for high-educated women and for those who work in medium and large firms.

Do Stepmothers Pay a Wage Penalty?

There is an abundance of research on the motherhood wage penalty, but few studies have looked at stepmotherhood and its association with women’s work hours, labor market experience, and wages. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979–2016) this study presents results of descriptive statistics and fixed effects regressions. We find that married residential stepmotherhood is a relatively transitory experience. Further, the transition to parenthood was associated with a reduction in all women’s time at work, but was smaller for stepmothers and larger for biological mothers. Compared to married biological mothers, residential stepmothers spent more time at work, accumulated more labor market experience, and did not pay a motherhood wage penalty. These results broaden our understanding of how different pathways to motherhood may impact the nature of women’s relationships with their children, and in turn, other aspects of women’s lives including women’s work–family experiences.