Motherhood and wages

This article examines labour force participation rates and wage rates according to gender and parenthood in a selection of European countries. Since the ranking of European countries according to their labour force participation rates does not coincide with the ranking of countries according to gross and net hourly wages in purchasing power parities according to gender and parenthood, countries with low female participation rates may face selection into employment effects in women's wages. A review of mostly single-country studies on women's wages shows that for the Scandinavian countries it is still unclear whether care-related leave has consequences for human capital accumulation, whether these consequences are overcome later in a career or not, and whether leave affects wages by signalling. The effect of working part-time on women's wages has not been a focus of research in Scandinavian full-time economies but British studies make clear the negative effects of working part-time on British women's wages. No such clear effect is found in the Dutch part-time economy. There is still a child pay gap in the UK. No such effect is found in the Netherlands nor in Scandinavian countries.