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The Parenthood Gap: Firms and Earnings Inequality After Kids

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Abstract

We document the dynamics of career paths around parenthood, capturing worker advancement within firms and across firms of differing pay. Using a new linkage between administrative data on U.S. workers’ fertility and labor-market histories, we show that the parental earnings gap is partly explained by mothers transitioning to lower-paying firms. Firm downgrading is driven by parents who take an extended absence from the labor force. Mothers who move to lower-paying firms see improved job amenities, but less generous fringe benefits. The firm’s contribution to the parental earnings gap rises over time and reaches one-third by the child’s 11th birthday.

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  • Rebecca Jack & Daniel Tannenbaum & Brenden Timpe, 2025. "The Parenthood Gap: Firms and Earnings Inequality After Kids," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 110, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmoi:99456
    DOI: 10.21034/iwp.110
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender; gender earnings gap; Firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

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