The motherhood wage penalty: A meta-analysis.
Family wage gap
Meta-Analysis
Meta-Regression
Motherhood
Motherhood penalty
Journal
Social science research
ISSN: 1096-0317
Titre abrégé: Soc Sci Res
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 0330501
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Historique:
received:
09
08
2019
revised:
07
03
2020
accepted:
12
03
2020
entrez:
30
5
2020
pubmed:
30
5
2020
medline:
22
4
2022
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Mothers tend to receive lower wages than comparable childless women. This 'motherhood wage gap' has been reported in numerous studies. We summarize the existing empirical evidence on this topic using meta-analysis and test for several mechanisms which can be responsible for the persistence of the wage gap. Based on 208 wage effects of having exactly one child and 245 wage effects of the total number of children, we find an average motherhood wage gap of around 3.6-3.8%. While the gaps associated with the total number of children are mostly explained by the loss of mothers' human capital during child-related career breaks, the gaps associated with one child are predominantly driven by mothers' choice of jobs and occupations that pay less. The residual gap is smallest in Nordic countries, where public policies actively support gender equality and reconciliation of work and family, as well as Belgium and France, and largest in the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Anglo-Saxon countries.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32469733
pii: S0049-089X(20)30014-4
doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2020.102416
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Meta-Analysis
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Pagination
102416Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.