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Childbearing Risk, Job Sectors, and the Motherhood Wage Penalty

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  • Shichao Du

    (The State University of New York)

Abstract

Recent studies have advanced our knowledge of the motherhood wage penalty by expanding its temporal scope and adding a contextualized perspective. Unaddressed questions related to this advancement are whether the risk of childbearing causes a wage loss for mothers-to-be and whether the influence of childbearing risk varies across different job sectors. China’s “dandu policy,” whereby mothers are divided by their eligibility for a second child, creates a natural experiment to answer these questions. Using data from the China Family Penal Studies and employing the difference-in-difference approach, this study finds that, under a national-level pro-natalist policy, mothers who are at risk of a second child suffer a wage loss in the private sector, whereas this motherhood wage penalty does not appear in the public sector. The findings reveal that potential fertility, in addition to realized fertility, can lead to the motherhood wage penalty. This “potential fertility”—based motherhood wage penalty is highly dependent on job sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Shichao Du, 2023. "Childbearing Risk, Job Sectors, and the Motherhood Wage Penalty," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(2), pages 1-19, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:poprpr:v:42:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s11113-023-09763-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11113-023-09763-5
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