What Same-Sex Adoption Laws Can Tell Us About the Gender Wage Gap in the United States

John Levendis () and Aaron Lowen
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John Levendis: Loyola University New Orleans

Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 2023, vol. 44, issue 2, No 17, 473-489

Abstract: Abstract Gender wage gaps are frequently explained as resulting from direct discrimination, employers’ preferences over personality traits, and differing labor force attachment. We rely on a natural quasi-experiment using exogenous changes in state-level, same-sex adoption laws to distinguish between the competing explanations of the gender wage gap. Estimates from a differences-in-differences model show the wage gap between lesbians and heterosexual women shrank or inverted in those states which legalized adoption by same-sex couples. The wage gap did not change for men. This supports the parenthood hypothesis as a viable explanation for a portion of the gender wage gap.

Keywords: Discrimination; Gender; Sexual orientation; Wage differentials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J31 J71 K36 K38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s10834-022-09835-2

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