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Title: Has the Motherhood Penalty Changed? The Declining Effect of Children on Young Women’s Wages
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Lundberg, Ian |
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Has the Motherhood Penalty Changed? The Declining Effect of Children on Young Women’s Wages Presented: San Francisco CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2014 Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97 Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Gender Attitudes/Roles; Gender Differences; Job Tenure; Motherhood; Wage Penalty/Career Penalty; Work Experience Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. While men’s wages increase when they have children, the presence of children at home is negatively associated with women’s wages. Gender differences in the effect of children on wages are partially responsible for continuing gender wage inequality. Previous research shows that the size of the motherhood wage penalty did not decline between 1975 and 1998 (Avellar and Smock 2003). However, several changes suggest that the penalty may have declined in more recent years. Gender role attitudes have become more egalitarian, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 increased the availability of maternity leave, and the structure of employment has shifted away from long careers with a single employer toward temporary and contingent work, which may allow mothers to catch up after taking time off work. Using panel data, this study compares the motherhood penalty in two cohorts: the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY-79) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (NLSY-97). From the NLSY-79 to the NLSY-97, there is a significant decline in the magnitude of the motherhood wage penalty. Motherhood has a more negative influence on job tenure and work experience in the early cohort than the later cohort, and these variables are stronger predictors of wages in the early cohort than in the later cohort. Although these changes demonstrate that mothers are increasingly attached to the labor force, they cannot explain the decline in the motherhood wage penalty. |
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Bibliography Citation
Lundberg, Ian. "Has the Motherhood Penalty Changed? The Declining Effect of Children on Young Women’s Wages." Presented: San Francisco CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2014. |