Family and career: An analysis across Europe and North America

Luis Guirola, Laura Hospido and Andrea Weber

No 2415, Working Papers from Banco de España

Abstract: Using data for 17 countries in Europe and North America, we compare the career trajectories of mothers and fathers and of women and men without children across cohorts and at different points in their life cycle. There is wide cross-country variation in employment and earnings gaps at age 30. At age 50, however, employment gaps between mothers and non-mothers have closed in most countries. We also observe convergence in employment gaps between mothers and fathers by age 50, but these gaps do not close altogether. Motherhood gaps in earnings also close by age 50 between mothers and non-mothers, particularly among the highly educated. But there is strong persistence in earnings gaps between mothers and fathers even among highly educated parents. The main reasons for the remaining gaps at later stages in the life-cycle are part-time work among women and fatherhood premia as fathers’ earnings outperform non-fathers’ over their life-cycle.

Keywords: gender gaps; employment; earnings; children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J13 J16 J21 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2024-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-gen, nep-lab and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Family and career: an analysis across Europe and North America (2024)
Working Paper: Family and Career: An Analysis across Europe and North America (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bde:wpaper:2415

DOI: 10.53479/36575

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