The so-called "maternity wage penalty" refers to the fact that after giving birth, women's salary income will drop significantly. Why is it going down? Xu Qi, an associate professor at the School of Sociology of Nanjing University, published in the 5th issue of Sociological Research in 2021 "From Fatherhood Salary Premium to Motherhood Salary Punishment", citing several research theories that female childbirth will affect wage income in four ways:
The first is the accumulation of human capital. The theory suggests that women tend to interrupt their work or take up part-time work for family reasons after childbearing, which hinders the accumulation of their human capital, while men's human capital is rarely negatively affected by childbearing (Budig England, 2001).
The second is work input. The theory is that women devote their main energy to caring for their children after giving birth, which reduces their labor productivity, which in turn leads to lower wages. Men, on the other hand, tend to devote their energies to work after childbearing, so their labor productivity and wage income increase (Killewald, 2013).
The third is the compensatory wage differential. The theory is that women with children tend to choose jobs that are more "friendly" to their mothers, such as flexible working hours and low physical exertion, and that these jobs tend to pay less. Men with children, on the other hand, are often unconcerned and may even deliberately choose hard-working, hard-working jobs in order to earn compensatory wages (Budig England, 2001).
Fourth, employer discrimination. The theory is that employers impose "statistical discrimination" on women with children based on past experience or stereotypes.
So, which is the greater degree of maternal punishment compared to having a second child or having a first child? There is no consensus on this issue. Two ** studies are cited below:
The aforementioned Xu Qi's ** study "From Paternal Salary Premium to Motherhood Salary Punishment" shows that "after controlling for other variables, the negative impact of childbirth on women's wage income is very significant." The results of the analysis show that for every child born, a woman's annual wage income decreases170%, hourly wages fell by 174%γIn terms of the number of children, the negative impact of childbirth on women's wages and income is mainly manifested in the birth of two children or more. After giving birth to the first child, women's annual wage income and hourly wages both decreased by less than 4%, and neither was statistically significant. However, after the birth of a second child, a woman's annual wage income and hourly wage will fall by 25 percent8% and 269 per cent, while after the birth of a third or more children, women's annual wage earnings and hourly wages fell by as much as 87 per cent5% and 860%γβ
However, Yang Fan, an associate professor at the Center for Population and Development Studies at Renmin University of Chinese, and others published in the 5th issue of Population Research in 2022, "Motherhood Punishment in China's Women's Labor Supply" showed that when giving birth to one child, the labor force participation rate of mothers decreased by 239 percent, and the labor force participation rate fell by 11 percent when the second child was born4%, which is only half of what it was like when one child was born. In terms of working hours, having one child reduces monthly working hours by 233 hours, but the reduction in the number of hours worked per month at the birth of a second child is no longer significant. This pattern persists after controlling for the linear temporal trend of the individual, and the estimation results are robust. This article draws the following conclusions: the degree of "motherhood punishment" for women giving birth to two children is less than that for giving birth to one child, which indicates that the impact of childbirth on women's labor supply is marginally decreasing to a certain extent.
Although the research of Yang Fan et al. also confirmed the existence of "motherhood punishment", this conclusion is contrary to the conclusion of Xu Qi's research. Yang Fan et al.'s research suggests that the degree of "motherhood punishment" for women giving birth to a second child is less than that for having a child, while Xu Qi's research suggests that the degree of "motherhood punishment" for women giving birth to a second child is greater than that for having a first child. The reason for this is that the data used in the two papers** are different, with Yang Fan and He Yuchen's study using data from the China Household Longitudinal Survey (CFPS) from 2010 to 2018, while Xu Qi's study using data from the 1989 and 2015 CHNS (China Health and Nutrition Survey).
In addition, Xu Qi's research found that "after the birth of a third or more children, women's annual wage income and hourly wages fell by as much as 87 percent."5% and 860%", this conclusion may not be accurate, because China only implemented the three-child policy in May 2021, and having three children before that was not in line with the family planning policy, therefore, in the 1989 2015 CHNS data, families who have a third or more children are likely to be subject to family planning penalties, resulting in distorted data on "motherhood punishments".
Regarding the "motherhood salary penalty", there are many studies published at home and abroad, but the data given by different ** are not consistent as to how much women's wages drop after giving birth. Jia et al. published in 2013 using CHNS data from 1991 to 2009 found that childbearing reduced women's hourly wages by 18%. Using the same data, Yu Jia and Xie Yu's 2014 paper found that the punitive effect of childbirth on women's hourly wages was only 7%, while Zhang Chuanchuan's 2011 paper found that the effect was as high as 76%.
Therefore, there is no universally accurate data on the specific data of "motherhood pay penalty" so far. However, there is basically no doubt that the results of numerous studies at home and abroad show that the maternity pay penalty is real. "Motherhood salary penalty" is one of the main reasons for the decline of women's fertility intention.