European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

Motherhood Pay Penalty

by In Wales
Fri Jul 10th, 2009 at 07:32:49 AM EST

This tells us what we already know but since this is an issue that still isn't being addressed effectively, there's no harm in more new research hitting home some basic points again.

The Guardian reports:

Women with children earn about 22% less than their male colleagues, according to a new report that explores the "devastating" impact of motherhood on earnings.
"Before becoming parents, men and women are equally likely to be employed, but childbirth marks the start of a great divide, which continues even after children have left home and does lasting damage to women's careers," the report finds.
Around 57% of mothers with children under five are in paid work, compared with 90% of men, according to the research published by the Fawcett Society. Partnered women without dependent children earn 9% less than men on average, but for mothers working full-time who have two children, the pay gap with men in the same situation is 21.6%.
"For each year she is absent from the workplace, a mother's future wages will reduce by 5%," says the study, entitled Not Having it All: How Motherhood Reduces Women's Pay and Employment Prospects. Mothers are also much more likely than fathers to adjust their work to fit in with their children's schedules.

This situation isn't going to change until fathers are equally able to take time off and to take up flexible working to help share the childcare. The current maternity, paternity and parental leave legislation continues to entrench gender inequalities by not providing equal access to rights for men and women when raising their families. Gender roles can't shift when rights are not equal.

Concerned that the extension of maternity leave from six to nine and soon to 12 months has "entrenched the assumption that women do the caring and pay the career penalty", the EHRC will set out a series of measures to redress the gender imbalance by encouraging fathers to become more involved in caring for their children.
Research conducted by the commission suggests that families no longer have firm preconceptions about men as breadwinners and women as carers, but notes that legislation is lagging behind this shift.
"Britain now stands out internationally for having a very long period of leave reserved for mothers, most of it at a low rate of pay, and for having a relatively weak parental leave," the report says.
"Together long, low-paid maternity leave and short, low-paid paternity leave convey the message that it is primarily women who are responsible for the care of young children."

The Fawcett Society Report makes a number of recommendations:

Provide mothers with the support they need to return to jobs at their previous skills levels

Enforce and extend the law to protect pregnant women and women on maternity leave

Create substantially more part-time work in higher paid occupations

Tackle the low pay that exists in sectors primarily employing women.

Issues such as a living wage, especially in low paid sectors that contain predominantly female workers is crucial for keeping women and children out of poverty. The introduction of the minimum wage was hugely important in lifting many women and other vulnerable workers out of deep poverty. In many areas in-work poverty has outstripped poverty for those household where none of the adults are in employment. Issues around pay need to be tackled at all levels, alongside an introduction of fairer and more effective maternity, paternity and flexible working regulations.

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Motherhood Pay Penalty | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Motherhood Pay Penalty (none / 1)

Are there any mothers on ET who have found a pay penalty and other gender inequalities have affected their choices and careers?

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Jul 10th, 2009 at 08:04:12 AM EST

Re: Motherhood Pay Penalty (4.00 / 2)

any mothers on ET who have found a pay penalty and other gender inequalities

Yes (ingrained sexism and racism everywhere discounts opportunity and compensation)

penalty and other gender inequalities have affected their choices and careers

and no: I've "always" known myself to be better suited --terms of skill and temperament or high-risk threshold-- to self-employment. I value self-directed time management more than other forms of labor compensation.

Recommendation #3, "Create substantially more part-time work in higher paid occupations," addresses the principal economic benefit of self-employment, regardless of gender status or types of nonpaying custodial duties in my experience.

So I would say, my path of career(s) and earnings development is not derived from parenting obligations. Rather parenting obligations reinforce pre-existing conditions of employment that reflected my high opinion of my time :) and low opinion of luxury goods and "wealth" acquisition.

The likelihoood of the gap closing between mandatory minimum and competitive wages seems to me a regressive function demanding, in the long run, fewer specialized ("high") skills of most participants --since producers so seldom voluntarily distribute to employees "productivity" gains.

This development need not be onerous, if money market inflation remains sequestered and Westworld legislatures can be persuaded to take up social insurance projects such as medical service and education.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by MarketTrustee on Fri Jul 10th, 2009 at 10:58:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Motherhood Pay Penalty (none / 1)

Public sector wages 47% higher - CSO - The Irish Times - Fri, Jul 10, 2009

The average employee in Ireland earned €20.08 per hour, worked 34.4 hours a week and had spent nine years in their current job in 2007, according to the latest National Employment Survey.
The survey, conducted by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in October 2007, found men earned an average of €21.17 per hour, while women earned an average of €18.91 per hour, or 89 per cent of male earnings.
Average hourly earnings in the public sector were 47.6 per cent higher than those in the private sector. Employees in the public sector were paid an average of €26.67, compared to €18.07 in the private sector.

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot dotty communists) on Fri Jul 10th, 2009 at 12:23:07 PM EST

Pay Penalty, Try Career Penalty (4.00 / 2)

At least in the U.S., a new mother who takes leave (read: quits because there is no long-term leave) to raise her child makes herself unemployable and ruins her career.

If a mother of two stays at home with two children, spaced 2-3 years apart, she then is out of the work force for 8-10 years before the children are of school age.

This length of gap is the kiss of death for any career. Having children in the U.S. kills careers.

by Magnifico on Fri Jul 10th, 2009 at 02:02:50 PM EST

Motherhood Pay Penalty | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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