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Time out for women7/7/2023 This chart, for example, shows vastly different earnings trajectories for women who have children versus those who do not become mothers.Ĭhildbearing, the study estimates, accounts for 80 percent of the gender wage gap in Denmark. Studies conducted in the United States have come to this finding - and Kleven’s new research does too. His study is among a growing body of research that suggests what we often think of as a gender pay gap is more accurately discussed as a childbearing pay gap or motherhood penalty.Ĭhildless women have earnings that are quite similar to men’s salaries, while mothers experience a significant wage gap. The cumulative effect is huge: Women end up earning 20 percent less than their male counterparts over the course of their career. Kleven finds a sharp decline in women’s earnings after the birth of their first child - with no comparable salary drop for men. Yet Denmark has a gender wage gap nearly the same size as that of the United States, a country where women are not guaranteed paid maternity leave and child care increasingly costs more than rent. The government offers public nursery care for children under 3 at the equivalent of $737 a month - a fraction of typical costs in the United States. This is a country that offers new parents an entire year of paid leave after the birth of a child. He uses data from a country with one of the world’s most robust social safety nets: Denmark. The research comes from Henrik Kleven, an economist at Princeton University. Others point to women selecting into certain fields that pay less - while still others cite gaps in the types of education men and women pursue.Īn important new study makes a compelling case for another explanation: The gender wage gap is mostly a penalty for bearing children. Some think the wage gap is the result of gender discrimination, an economy that doesn’t believe women can perform as well as men. The big debate in this space isn’t whether a gender wage gap exists - it’s why the gap exists. Look across the world and you won’t find a country where men and women have equal earnings. It is true in Denmark (which has a 15 percent wage gap). It is true in Japan (women there earn 73 percent of what a man does). This is true in the United States (where women earn about 79 percent of what men do). It is a persistent fact that - across time and across countries - women earn less money than men.
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