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The Motherhood Wage Penalty and Its Determinants: A Public–Private Comparison

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  • Chloé Duvivier
  • Mathieu Narcy

Abstract

We investigate whether public and private sector employees bear a different wage penalty for having children. According to our estimates, the total motherhood wage penalty is much larger in the private than in the public sector. Nevertheless, in both sectors, we find no unexplained penalty once we control for potential determinants of the family pay gap, namely, a reduced labour supply of mothers, child-related career interruptions, less access to management positions, and adjustments in working conditions. Finally, only child-related career interruptions play a different role in explaining the motherhood wage penalty in each sector.

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  • Chloé Duvivier & Mathieu Narcy, 2015. "The Motherhood Wage Penalty and Its Determinants: A Public–Private Comparison," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(4), pages 415-443, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:29:y:2015:i:4:p:415-443
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    Cited by:

    1. Ariane Pailhé & Anne Solaz, 2019. "Is there a wage cost for employees in family‐friendly workplaces? The effect of different employer policies," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 688-721, June.
    2. Bruno Jeandidier & Helen Lim, 2015. "Is there justification for alimony payments? A survey of the empirical literature," Working Papers hal-02105214, HAL.
    3. Chloe Duvivier & Joseph Lanfranchi & Mathieu Narcy, 2015. "Les sources de l'écart de rémunération entre hommes et femmes au sein des trois versants de la fonction publique," Working Papers hal-01292147, HAL.
    4. Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska & Anna Matysiak, 2018. "The Motherhood Wage Penalty: A Meta-Analysis," VID Working Papers 1808, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    5. Mathieu Narcy & Joseph Lanfranchi & Chloé Duvivier, 2016. "Les sources de l’écart de rémunération entre femmes et hommes dans la fonction publique," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 488(1), pages 123-150.

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