Women’s Income Drops After Childbirth, and the Pandemic May Worsen This Trend

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A new study shows that the women’s income drops after childbirth.

Even after the gender gap in the workforce is reduced, the same cannot be said bout the salary of women. A new study shows that the women’s income drops after childbirth. Sociologist Kelly Musick along with Pilar Gonalons-Pons of the University of Pennsylvania and Christine Schwartz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, looked at American couples over a period of 30 years. They analysed the entirety of their lives via documents: detailed survey results and administrative tax records provided them with data on earnings, birth and marriage dates, and education levels.

Irrespective of the income or education levels of the partners, the woman’s salary always trickled downwards after having a child. The research was published in Population and Development Review last month. What is more worrying is how this plays out during the pandemic. “The Covid19 pandemic may lock the income imbalance in place as mothers who are pulled back to care for children face worse hiring prospects…” the researchers noted.

It is notable that for men the wages remain the same before and after childbirth. But for women, who are cast into a caregiving role through motherhood, the wages decline after childbirth. The motherhood wage penalty, in some cases, is related to women’s “choice” of working less. Authors of this study, for instance, argued that “because mothers choose to work fewer hours, or in lower-paid but more child-friendly jobs, or not at all when their children are very young” their wages continue to drop.

But this is with the factor that women are not given a choice when it comes to taking a break or maternity leave after childbirth. In a country like India, there is no concept of paternity leave and it is naturally the mother who takes a break from her work after childbirth and hence continues to sacrifice her earnings as a penalty for motherhood.

Credits: The Swaddle

Read the full article here.

-Staff Reporter

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