The motherhood penalty in Spain: the effect of full-and part-time parental leave on women's earnings

The persistence of a wage gap between mothers and non-mothers has been widely analyzed. However, we know little about the impact of family policies on this relative motherhood penalty. This study investigates the extent to which unpaid leave granted for longer-term care of young children after an in...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Dominguez-Folgueras, Marta, González López, María José, 1966-, Lapuerta, Irene
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/59738
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59738
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxab046
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Motherhood penalty
Family policy
Income inequalities
Spain
Descripción
Sumario:The persistence of a wage gap between mothers and non-mothers has been widely analyzed. However, we know little about the impact of family policies on this relative motherhood penalty. This study investigates the extent to which unpaid leave granted for longer-term care of young children after an initial spell of maternity leave affects the motherhood wage gap, and whether full-time leave and part-time leave differ in this respect. We use panel data from the Continuous Sample of Working Lives and rely on a sample consisting of 959,359 women aged twenty-five to forty-seven between 2005 and 2012. We find first a negative association between use and duration of unpaid parental leave and mothers’ wages, and second that a full-time unpaid leave carries higher wage penalties than a part-time unpaid leave of the same duration. This study has major implications for policymaking.