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Is There a Motherhood Penalty? Decomposing the Family Wage Gap in Colombia

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  • Luis Gamboa
  • Blanca Zuluaga

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide an estimation and decomposition of the motherhood wage penalty in Colombia. Our empirical strategy was based on the matching procedure designed by Ñopo (The Review of Economics and Statistics, 90(2), 290–299, 2008a ) for the case of gender wage gaps. This is an alternative procedure to the well-known Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method. Using the cross-sectional data of the Colombian Living Standard Survey, the wage gap was decomposed into four components, according to the characteristics of mothers and non-mothers. Three of the components are explained by differences in observable characteristics of women, while the other is the unexplained part of the gap. We found that mothers earn, on average, 1.73 % less than their counterparts without children and that this gap slightly decreased when the group included older women. It is observed from the results that, once schooling was included as a matching variable, the unexplained part of the gap considerably decreased and became non-significant. Thus, we did not find evidence of wage discrimination against mothers in the Colombian labor market. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

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  • Luis Gamboa & Blanca Zuluaga, 2013. "Is There a Motherhood Penalty? Decomposing the Family Wage Gap in Colombia," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 421-434, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:34:y:2013:i:4:p:421-434
    DOI: 10.1007/s10834-012-9343-y
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    Cited by:

    1. Nancy Aireth DAZA BAEZ & Luis Fernando GAMBOA, 2013. "An approximation to the Informal-formal wage gap in Colombia 2008-2012," Archivos de Economía 11196, Departamento Nacional de Planeación.
    2. repec:ilo:ilowps:487376 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Soliz Cuevas, Erika Tatiana, 2022. "Penalidad salarial por maternidad: Análisis del efecto de los hijos sobre los ingresos laborales de las mujeres bolivianas del área urbana," Documentos de trabajo 2/2022, Instituto de Investigaciones Socio-Económicas (IISEC), Universidad Católica Boliviana.
    4. Rosangela Bando, 2019. "Evidence-based gender equality policy and pay in Latin America and the Caribbean: progress and challenges," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-23, December.
    5. Elizabeth Dolan & Elena Stancanelli, 2021. "Women’s Employment, Wages, and the Household," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 101-106, July.
    6. Grimshaw, Damian. & Rubery, Jill., 2015. "The motherhood pay gap : a review of the issues, theory and international evidence," ILO Working Papers 994873763402676, International Labour Organization.
    7. Nancy Daza & Luis Fernando Gamboa, 2013. "Informal-formal wage gaps in Colombia," Working Papers 301, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Family wage gap; Childbearing costs; Female wages; J3; J7;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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