Research Note: New Evidence on the Motherhood Wage Penalty
Wei-Hsin Yu1, Janet Chen-Lan Kuo2
1Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Demography
|March 12, 2024
Summary
Women delaying childbirth until their 30s experience a "parenthood premium," not a pay penalty. This contrasts with younger mothers, suggesting delayed childbearing impacts women's earnings differently.
Area of Science:
- Sociology
- Economics
- Demography
Background:
- U.S. women's average age at first birth has significantly increased.
- Limited research exists on the impact of delayed childbearing on the modern motherhood pay penalty.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how shifts in women's age at first birth affect the motherhood pay penalty.
- To analyze wage changes associated with childbirth for women who became mothers in the 2000s and 2010s.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from Rounds 1-19 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97).
- Employed fixed-effects models to assess hourly pay shifts with childbirth.
Main Results:
- Women having their first child before their late 20s experienced a motherhood pay penalty similar to previous cohorts.
- Women having children near or after age 30 encountered a "parenthood premium."
- The pay advantage for "late mothers" was linked to reduced working hours without a proportional pay decrease, not increased income.
Conclusions:
- Delayed motherhood and varied childbearing timing contribute to a smaller overall motherhood penalty in recent cohorts.
- The "late mother" premium is not explained by labor market, family, or demographic factors, but by work hour adjustments.
- Unlike the fatherhood premium, the late mother premium does not signify a true income increase.
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