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Family Friendly Policies: Helping Mothers Make Ends Meet

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  • Heather Boushey

Abstract

This paper examines how family friendly policies affect mothers' wages. Standard economic theory predicts that workers who desire family friendly policies would accept lower wages, all else equal. However, in the US labor market, the workers who have access to these policies tend to be in the higher-prestige and higher-earning occupations. This study examines the effects on wages of having had access to maternity leave and the ability to control one's schedule, using the Survey of Income and Program Participation. The present-day wages of mothers who were working prior to the birth of their first child and received pay during their maternity leave are 9 percent higher compared to other mothers, controlling for other personal and job-related characteristics. Mothers who report working their current schedule because it helps them address their caring responsibilities—child care, elder care, or care for a sick family member—do not suffer a wage penalty as a result.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather Boushey, 2008. "Family Friendly Policies: Helping Mothers Make Ends Meet," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 66(1), pages 51-70.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:66:y:2008:i:1:p:51-70
    DOI: 10.1080/00346760701668446
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Harkness, Susan & Waldfogel, Jane, 1999. "The family gap in pay," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51396, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Harkness, Susan & Waldfogel, Jane, 1999. "The family gap in pay: evidence from seven industrialised countries," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6481, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Susan Harkness & Jane Waldfogel, 1999. "The Family Gap in Pay: Evidence from Seven Industrialised Countries," CASE Papers 030, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    4. Jane Waldfogel & Susan Harkness, 1999. "The Family Gap in Pay: Evidence from Seven Industrialized Countries," LIS Working papers 219, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
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    Cited by:

    1. Heather Boushey, 2008. "“Opting out?” The effect of children on women's employment in the United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 1-36.
    2. Heather Boushey, 2005. "Are Women Opting Out? Debunking the Myth," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2005-36, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    3. Christian Nsiah & Ron DeBeaumont & Annette Ryerson, 2013. "Motherhood and Earnings: Wage Variability by Major Occupational Category and Earnings Level," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 224-234, June.
    4. Tay K. McNamara & Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes & Melissa Brown & Christina Matz-Costa, 2012. "Access to and Utilization of Flexible Work Options," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 936-965, October.
    5. Wilfred Dolfsma & Deborah Figart & Robert McMaster & Martha Starr, 2012. "Promoting Research on Intersections of Economics, Ethics, and Social Values: Editorial," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 70(2), pages 155-163, June.
    6. Laura Antonia Langner, 2018. "Flexible men and Successful Women: The Effects of Flexible Working Hours on German Couples’ Wages," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(4), pages 687-706, August.

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