The pattern
Waldfogel (1998) highlighted the family gap, and Budig and England (2001) estimated about a 7% wage penalty per child in the US. Kleven and colleagues (2019) showed women's earnings drop sharply and persistently after a first child in Denmark while men's barely change.
Causes
Human capital theory points to career breaks, yet Anderson and colleagues (2003) found penalties persist after controls. Correll and colleagues (2007) showed employers rate mothers' identical CVs lower. Budig and Hodges (2010) found larger penalties for low earners, linking to the feminisation of poverty.
Institutions
Gangl and Ziefle (2009) showed penalties vary across Britain, Germany and the US with leave and childcare. Defamilialisation policies and care regimes shape its size.
FAQ
- What is it in simple terms?
- Mothers earning less than similar women without children.
- Why does it happen?
- Career breaks, reduced hours, employer bias and care burdens falling on women.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Waldfogel, J. (1998). Understanding the "family gap" in pay for women with children. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(1), 137–156. Early overview of the family pay gap.
- Budig, M. J., & England, P. (2001). The wage penalty for motherhood. American Sociological Review, 66(2), 204–225. The landmark estimate of the penalty.
- Anderson, D. J., Binder, M., & Krause, K. (2003). The motherhood wage penalty revisited: Experience, heterogeneity, work effort, and work-schedule flexibility. ILR Review, 56(2), 273–294. Tests experience and flexibility explanations.
- Correll, S. J., Benard, S., & Paik, I. (2007). Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty? American Journal of Sociology, 112(5), 1297–1339. Audit evidence of employer discrimination.
- Gangl, M., & Ziefle, A. (2009). Motherhood, labor force behavior, and women's careers: An empirical assessment of the wage penalty for motherhood in Britain, Germany, and the United States. Demography, 46(2), 341–369. Cross-national comparison.
- 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. Larger penalties for low earners.
- Kleven, H., Landais, C., & Søgaard, J. E. (2019). Children and gender inequality: Evidence from Denmark. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(4), 181–209. Child penalty event study.