Labor Market Penalties for Mothers in Italy

Lia Pacelli, Silvia Pasqua and Claudia Villosio

Journal of Labor Research, 2013, vol. 34, issue 4, 408-432

Abstract: We use a large Italian employer-employee matched dataset to study how motherhood affects women’s working career in terms of labor force participation and wages. We confirm that the probability of exiting employment significantly increases for mothers of pre-school children; however, this is mitigated by higher job quality, human capital endowment and childcare accessibility. Most importantly, the availability of part-time jobs reduces their probability of moving out of the labor force. Women not leaving employment after becoming mothers experience lower wages than women with no pre-school child, and there are no signs of this gap closing 5 years after childbirth. Contrary to previous literature, the wage gap penalty emerges only among women working full-time, thanks to the high protection accorded to part-time jobs in Italy. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Keywords: Motherhood; Part-time jobs; Wage penalty; Working career; Reconciliation policies; J13; J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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DOI: 10.1007/s12122-013-9165-1

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