Mothers suffer hit to income: research
Study identifies severe ‘penalty’
For women, having a kid is a bad career move, and having one as a highly skilled earner is even worse.
For each child she has, a woman suffers a “motherhood penalty” of four per cent of income.
According to new research, published in the American Sociological Review, for high-skilled, high-paid workers that penalty climbs to 10 per cent per child.
When you’re on the fast track, your wages grow quickly, so taking a break to raise kids carries a greater cost in the long run. Highflying women who take off two years to raise their kids will miss out on projects, raises, and career opportunities that will have a big financial impact down the line.
“Any amount they do drop out or go down to part-time is going to be more costly for them,” said Paula England, a professor of sociology at New York University and the lead researcher on the study.
That’s one reason fewer highwage women drop out of the workforce. A Pew analysis from 2014 found that “opt-out moms” — mothers who have at least a master’s degree and an annual family income of US$75,000 or more, and who left the workforce to care for their families — make up just four per cent or so of moms who stay home with their children.
And those who do stay home describe it as less of a choice than a shove. In a 2009 Center for WorkLife Policy survey of women with advanced degrees or with highhonours undergraduate degrees, 69 per cent of respondents said they would not have “opted out” to care for their kids if their jobs had been more flexible.
“A lot of women are getting pushed into dropping out entirely for a few years because they can’t get a little leave at the beginning or because they can’t get enough flexibility,” said England.
The researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a nationally representative survey of over 5,000 women that has tracked employment and family information throughout the adult lives of the respondents. As for men, no problem. They get a fatherhood bonus, an increase of more than six per cent in earnings for every child they have. To employers, being a dad signals stability and commitment.
Even in workplaces that offer flexibility, women have reported penalties for taking advantage of the options, such as loss of responsibility or longer hours than promised.
“Employers have a bias that mothers are going to do worse, so they don’t promote them or pay them as much,” said England.
To the contrary, studies have found that moms are more productive workers.
The thought-leadership industrial complex has even called having kids a “productivity hack.”
The marketplace, at least for women, doesn’t reward it that way.
A lot of women are getting pushed into dropping out entirely for a few years because they can’t get a little leave at the beginning or because they can’t get enough flexibility. Paula England, professor of sociology at New York University