The Search for Parental Leave and the Early-Career Gender Wage Gap

Ilaria D'Angelis

No 2023-01, Working Papers from University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department

Abstract: Gender differences in preferences for parental leave contribute to the early-career growth in the gender wage gap among highly educated millennial Americans. Estimating a hedonic job-search model, I show that, while both men and women experience wage growth by entering firms offering better pay and benefits, the wage gap increases as women accept lower wages upon receiving job offers from employers providing parental leave. The wage-gap growth could decline by 60% if preferences for paid parental leave did not differ by gender. It could also decline if mandating and subsidizing the provision of paid leave muted workers’ leave-wage trade-off.

Keywords: Gender wage gap; non-wage benefits; paid parental leave; unpaid parental leave; job search; early careers. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J31 J32 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2024-12-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-lab
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