Marriage and the Motherhood Wage Penalty Among African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites

Abstract

This study draws on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 5,929) to analyze the moderating effects of race and marriage on the motherhood wage penalty. Fixed‐effects models reveal that for Hispanic women, motherhood is not associated with a wage penalty. For African Americans, only married mothers with more than 2 children pay a wage penalty. For Whites, all married mothers pay a wage penalty, as do all never‐married mothers and divorced mothers with 1 or 2 children. These findings imply that racial differences in the motherhood wage penalty persist even for women with similar marital statuses, and they suggest that patterns of racial stratification shape women’s family experiences and labor market outcomes.

The wage penalty for motherhood: Evidence on discrimination from panel data and a survey experiment for Switzerland

“…After controlling for human capital and job characteristics we found a net wage penalty of between 4% and 8% per child. This leaves us with wage residuals that are similar to those found for Germany (Gangl and Ziefle 2009;Gash 2009), but larger than those reported for the United States (Budig and England 2001;Glauber 2007).…”

“…At the same time, it is possible that children are considered to interfere less with work productivity in manual activities than in an office job. The social norm of the good mother who is constantly available for her children may apply less to women employed in subordinate working-class positions than to women in white-collar jobs, echoing the finding for the United States that white mothers are discriminated against, but not Latino or African-American mothers (Glauber 2007;Denny 2016). …”

“…A vignette study among employed adults (Denny 2016) and a longitudinal survey study (Glauber 2007) find a wage penalty in the United States only for white mothers and not for mothers from minority groups. One explanation is that the dominant social norm of the 'good mother' who should be constantly available to her children only applies to white women.…”

“…While differences in work experience and job characteristics go some way in accounting for this gap, most studies find a nontrivial unexplained wage residual. In Britain, Germany, and the United States, this residual varies between a low of 3%-5% and a high of 8%-10% per child and suggests that mothers incur an earnings penalty (e.g., Budig and England 2001;Gangl and Ziefle 2009;Glauber 2007;Killewald and Gough 2013;Harkness 2016). The unexplained wage residual for motherhood may arise from two sources: the unobserved effects of motherhood on work productivity or employer discrimination against mothers.…”

Work–Family Policy Trade-Offs for Mothers? Unpacking the Cross-National Variation in Motherhood Earnings Penalties

“…The individual-level mechanisms that produce this penalty have been extensively studied (Anderson et al, 2003;Avellar & Smock, 2003;Budig & England, 2001;Gangl & Ziefle, 2009;Glauber, 2007;Lundberg & Rose, 2000;Waldfogel, 1997Waldfogel, , 1998aWaldfogel, , 1998b. These studies show that the total, or gross, motherhood penalty can be partially explained by foregone work experience due to childbirth interruptions, firm changes following employment reentrance, and part-time work hours, among others.…”