Absence from Work after the Birth of the First Child and Mothers’ Retirement Incomes: A Comparative Analysis of 10 European Countries

Giulia M Dotti Sani and Matteo Luppi
Additional contact information
Giulia M Dotti Sani: University of Milano Statale, Italy
Matteo Luppi: National Institute of Public Policy Analysis (INAPP), Italy

Work, Employment & Society, 2021, vol. 35, issue 3, 470-489

Abstract: This article investigates whether a prolonged absence from the workforce after the birth of the first child is associated with mothers having a lower retirement income and whether cross-national variations in family policy and pension systems moderate the relationship between work interruptions and retirement incomes in 10 European countries. The analysis, based on five waves of SHARE data, indicates that the longer a mother abstains from work after the birth of her first child, the lower her retirement income is. However, the association is negligible in countries where mothers are historically supported by a comprehensive welfare system, namely Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. The findings indicate that generous work–family reconciliation policies and a universally oriented pensions system are most effective in minimising long-term motherhood income penalties when they are jointly present, pointing to the importance of policy packages that combine active and passive measures to achieve dual decommodification.

Keywords: family policy; gender gap; motherhood penalty; pension systems; retirement income; SHARE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017020937935 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:3:p:470-489

DOI: 10.1177/0950017020937935

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Work, Employment & Society from British Sociological Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().