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Workplace Variation in Fatherhood Wage Premiums: Do Formalization and Performance Pay Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Sylvia Fuller

    (University of British Columbia, Canada)

  • Lynn Prince Cooke

    (University of Bath, UK)

Abstract

Parenthood contributes substantially to broader gender wage inequality. The intensification of gendered divisions of paid and unpaid work after the birth of a child create unequal constraints and expectations such that, all else equal, mothers earn less than childless women, but fathers earn a wage premium. The fatherhood wage premium, however, varies substantially among men. Analyses of linked workplace-employee data from Canada reveal how organizational context conditions educational, occupational and family-status variation in fatherhood premiums. More formal employment relations (collective bargaining and human resource departments) reduce both overall fatherhood premiums and group differences in them, while performance pay systems (merit and incentive pay) have mixed effects. Shifting entrenched gendered divisions of household labour is thus not the only pathway to minimizing fathers’ wage advantage.

Suggested Citation

  • Sylvia Fuller & Lynn Prince Cooke, 2018. "Workplace Variation in Fatherhood Wage Premiums: Do Formalization and Performance Pay Matter?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(4), pages 768-788, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:32:y:2018:i:4:p:768-788
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017018764534
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    References listed on IDEAS

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