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Child-related career interruptions and the gender wage gap in France

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  • Dominique Meurs
  • Ariane Pailhé
  • Sophie Ponthieux

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the extent of the effects of children and child-related time out of the labor market on the gender wage gap in France, with special attention to its impact on the accumulation and composition of human capital. Measuring this impact requires detailed information on the individuals‟ activity history that is rarely available. The French survey "Families and Employers" (Ined, 2005) provides this information. We first look at men's and women's wage determinants, including the penalties associated with unemployment and time out of the labor market. We find that having controlled for the jobs' characteristics and selection into employment, there is a penalty attached to child-related time out of the labor market, which affects only women. We do not find any direct negative impact of children on women's current hourly wage at the mean. Then for a sub-sample of men and women aged from 39 to 49, we use a decomposition of the gender wage gap into an "interruption" wage gap between women and a gender wage gap between women who have never taken child-related time out and men; we find that the wage gap between men and women who have never interrupted their participation in the labor force is essentially "unexplained", while the wage gap between women who have had child-related interruptions and women who have not is essentially "explained".

Suggested Citation

  • Dominique Meurs & Ariane Pailhé & Sophie Ponthieux, 2011. "Child-related career interruptions and the gender wage gap in France," EconomiX Working Papers 2011-3, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    • Handle: RePEc:drm:wpaper:2011-3
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    Cited by:

    1. Bruno Jeandidier & Helen Lim, 2015. "Is there justification for alimony payments? A survey of the empirical literature," Working Papers hal-02105214, HAL.
    2. Lionel Wilner, 2016. "Worker-firm matching and the parenthood pay gap: Evidence from linked employer-employee data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 991-1023, October.
    3. Christl, Michael & Köppl-Turyna, Monika, 2017. "Gender wage gap and the role of skills: evidence from PIAAC dataset," GLO Discussion Paper Series 63, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Eleonora Matteazzi & Ariane Pailhé & Anne Solaz, 2013. "Does Part-Time Employment Widen the Gender Wage Gap? Evidence from Twelve European Countries," Working Papers 293, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    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.
    6. 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.
    7. Bruno Rodrigues & Vincent Vergnat, 2019. "The time and the transitions back to work in France after maternity," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 861-888, September.
    8. -, 2020. "Brechas de género en los ingresos laborales en el Uruguay," Coediciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 45792 edited by Cepal.
    9. Pierre PORA & Lionel WILNER, 2019. "Child Penalties and Financial Incentives: Exploiting Variation along the Wage distribution," Working Papers 2019-17, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    10. Bargain, Olivier B. & Doorley, Karina & Van Kerm, Philippe, 2018. "Minimum Wages and the Gender Gap in Pay: New Evidence from the UK and Ireland," IZA Discussion Papers 11502, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Thomas Skora & Heiko Rüger & Nico Stawarz, 2020. "Commuting and the Motherhood Wage Gap: Evidence from Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    12. Olivier Bargain & Karina Doorley & Philippe Van Kerm, 2019. "Minimum Wages and the Gender GAP in Pay: New Evidence from the United Kingdom and Ireland," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(3), pages 514-539, September.
    13. 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.
    14. Olivier Thévenon & Angela Luci, 2012. "Reconciling Work, Family and Child Outcomes: What Implications for Family Support Policies?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 31(6), pages 855-882, December.
    15. Souleymane Mbaye, 2019. "Trois évaluations d’actions de lutte contre les discriminations," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph19-01 edited by Pascale Petit.
    16. Gerst, Benedikt & Grund, Christian, 2017. "Career Interruptions and Current Earnings: The Role of Interruption Type, Compensation Component, and Gender," IZA Discussion Papers 10713, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Drahomíra Zajíèková & Miroslav Zajíèek, 2022. "The Fatherhood Premium or the Fatherhood Penalty? It Depends on the Type of Marriage You’re in: The Case of Slovakia 2009 through 2018," Journal of Economics / Ekonomicky casopis, Institute of Economic Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences, vol. 70(7-8), pages 646-677, July.
    18. Nizalova, Olena Y. & Sliusarenko, Tamara & Shpak, Solomiya, 2016. "The motherhood wage penalty in times of transition," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 56-75.
    19. repec:ilo:ilowps:487376 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Erik Lundquist & Hanna Ekl f, 2017. "The Motherhood Wage Penalty: A Varieties of Capitalism Approach," LIS Working papers 710, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    21. BARGAIN Olivier & DOORLEY Karina & VAN KERM Philippe, 2016. "Minimum wages and the gender gap in pay. Evidence from the UK and Ireland," LISER Working Paper Series 2016-02, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    22. Sylvain Chareyron & Yannick L'Horty & Mathilde Leborgne, 2021. "Les écarts de rémunération au recrutement des femmes et des hommes : une investigation en entreprise," Working Papers hal-03240956, HAL.
    23. Carole Bonnet & Bruno Jeandidier & Anne Solaz, 2018. "Wage Premium and Wage Penalty in Marriage versus Cohabitation," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 128(5), pages 745-775.
    24. Joseph, Olivier & Pailhé, Ariane & Recotillet, Isabelle & Solaz, Anne, 2013. "The economic impact of taking short parental leave: Evaluation of a French reform," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 63-75.
    25. Grimshaw, Damian. & Rubery, Jill., 2015. "The motherhood pay gap : a review of the issues, theory and international evidence," ILO Working Papers 994873763402676, International Labour Organization.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wages; Human capital; Children; Family pay gap; Statistical discrimination; Wage gap decomposition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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