Care more, earn less? The association between care leave for sick children and wage among Swedish parents

Katarina Boye ()
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Katarina Boye: Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University, Postal: Stockholm, Sweden

No 2015:18, Working Paper Series from IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy

Abstract: A number of studies have shown that women’s and men’s wages relate to parenthood in general and to parental leave in particular, but we know little about the possible wage impact of leave to care for sick children, which is a part of the Swedish parental leave system. On the one hand, care leave may influence human capital and real or perceived work capacity similarly to parental leave and send the employer the same signals about work commitment and responsibilities outside of work. On the other hand, important differences, including timing, frequency and predictability, between care leave and parental leave influence paid work. This study uses Swedish register data to analyse the association between care leave and wages among mothers and fathers who had their first child in 1994. The results show that care leave is associated with a lower wage, particularly among men, up to 13 years after the birth of the first child. One reason for the gender difference in the association between care leave and wage may be that men’s care leave has a stronger signalling effect compared with women’s care leave.

Keywords: Care leave; parental leave; wages; gender equality; family; labour market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2015-09-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-hea, nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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