"Motherhood penalty": The impact of age at first birth on women's wages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22394/1993-7601-2026-82-86-104Keywords:
штраф за материнство, возраст рождения первенца, занятость женщин с детьми, заработная плата женщин, РМЭЗ НИУ ВШЭAbstract
This article examines the relationship between the age of first birth and the value of the "motherhood penalty" in wages. The author constructs a fixed-effects panel regression using panel data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (waves from 2006 to 2022). The study finds that having a child leads to a 12.7 per cent decrease in wages. Furthermore, the author observes that the largest difference occurs among women who had their first child between the ages of 25 and 30 is 17 per cent, while among those who became mothers before the age of 25, it is 7 per cent, and among those who did so after the age of 30, it is 11.7 per cent.Agencies
This article is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at HSE University.Downloads
References
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Budig M. J., England P. (2001). The wage penalty for motherhood. American Sociological Review, 66 (2), 204–225. DOI: 10.2307/2657415.
Budig M. J., Hodges M. J. (2010). Differences in disadvantage: Variation in the motherhood penalty across white women's earnings distribution. American Sociological Review, 75 (5), 705–728. DOI: 10.1177/0003122410381593.
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Duvivier C., Narcy M. (2015). The motherhood wage penalty and its determinants: A public–private comparison. Labour, 29 (4), 415–443. DOI: 10.1111/labr.12057.
Evertsson M., Duvander A. Z. (2011). Parental leave — possibility or trap? Does family leave length effect Swedish women's labour market opportunities? European Sociological Review, 27 (4), 435–450. DOI: 10.1093/esr/jcq018.
Glauber R. (2012). Women's work and working conditions: Are mothers compensated for lost wages? Work and Occupations, 39 (2), 115–138. DOI: 10.1177/07308884114229.
Gough M., Noonan M. (2013). A review of the motherhood wage penalty in the United States. Sociology Compass, 7 (4), 328–342. DOI: 10.1111/soc4.12031.
Grimshaw D., Rubery J. (2015). The motherhood pay gap. International Labour Organization, 57 (1), 1–69.
Kahn J. R., García-Manglano J., Bianchi S. M. (2014). The motherhood penalty at midlife: Long-term effects of children on women's careers. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 76 (1), 56–72. DOI: 10.1111/jomf.12086.
Kalabikhina I. E., Kuznetsova P. O., Zhuravleva S. A. (2024). Size and factors of the motherhood penalty in the labour market: A meta-analysis. Population and Economics, 8 (2), 178–205. DOI: 10.3897/popecon.8.e121438.
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Keck W., Saraceno C. (2013). The impact of different social-policy frameworks on social inequalities among women in the European Union: The labour-market participation of mothers. Social Politics, 20 (3), 297–328. DOI: 10.1093/sp/jxt005.
Kenworthy L. (2008). Jobs with equality. Oxford: Oxford Academic. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199550593.001.0001.
Killewald A., Gough M. (2013). Does specialization explain marriage penalties and premiums? American Sociological Review, 78 (3), 477–502. DOI: 10.1177/0003122413484151.
Lebedinski L., Perugini C., Vladisavljević M. (2023). Child penalty in Russia: Evidence from an event study. Review of Economics of the Household, 21 (1), 173–215. DOI: 10.1007/s11150-022-09604-y.
Lundberg S., Rose E. (2000). Parenthood and the earnings of married men and women. Labour Economics, 7 (6), 689–710. DOI: 10.1016/s0927-5371(00)00020-8.
Miller A. R. (2011). The effects of motherhood timing on career path. Journal of Population Economics, 24 (3), 1071–1100. DOI: 10.1007/s00148-009-0296-x.
Mincer J., Polachek S. (1974). Family investments in human capital: Earnings of women. Journal of Political Economy, 82 (2), 76–108.
Pettit B., Hook J. L. (2005). The structure of women's employment in comparative perspective. Social Forces, 84 (2), 779–801. DOI: 10.1353/sof.2006.0029.
Schmidt L., Sobotka T., Bentzen J. G., Nyboe Andersen A. (2012). Demographic and medical consequences of the postponement of parenthood. Human Reproduction Update, 18 (1), 29–43. DOI: 10.1093/humupd/dmr040.
Self S. (2005). What makes motherhood so expensive? The role of social expectations, interdependence, and coordination failure in explaining lower wages of mothers. Journal of Socio-Economics, 34 (6), 850–865. DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2005.07.021.
Taniguchi H. (1999). The timing of childbearing and women's wages. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61 (4), 1008–1019. DOI: 10.2307/354020.
Van Roode T., Sharples K., Dickson N., Paul C. (2017). Life-course relationship between socioeconomic circumstances and timing of first birth in a birth cohort. PloS one, 12 (1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170170.
Waldfogel J., Blank R. M., England P. (1997). Working mothers then and now: A cross-cohort analysis of the effects of maternity leave on women's pay. In: Blau F. D., Ehrenberg R. G. (eds.). Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace, 92–132. Russell Sage Foundation.
Wilde E., Batchelder L. L., Ellwood D. T. (2010). The mommy track divides: The impact of childbearing on wages of women of differing skill levels. NBER Working Paper 16582. National Bureau of Economic Research.
Yu W., Kuo J. (2024). Research note: New evidence on the motherhood wage penalty. Demography, 61 (2), 231–250. DOI: 10.1215/00703370-11218936.
