Today is equal pay day. The most compelling story on pay equity recently is the suit filed by
members of the US National Women’s Soccer Team alleging gender-based wage discrimination. You can read the
story but this slide show (unfortunately embedded in Facebook) tells the tale
better.
While straight-up
old-school wage discrimination remains an important issue, new research
suggests that social policy plays an important role in mitigating the wage
penalty associated with having children.
“Work–Family Policy Trade-Offs for Mothers? Unpacking the Cross-National Variationin Motherhood Earnings Penalties” finds (among other things) that publicly
funded child-care and job-protected leaves help minimize the motherhood wage
penalty. The economically ideal leave length (from the perspective of
minimizing the child wage penalty) appears to be two years, with shorter and
longer leaves being associated with worse outcomes.
-- Bob Barnetson
I took a peek at the article, and it seems like the authors inadvertently allude to the idea that egalitarianism in unpaid work may be another important solution (e.g. the idea that paternity leave minimizes the gender wage gap). To me this really suggests that while policy around parental leave is important, socialization and valuation of fathering (or co-parenting in general) are also important avenues to reduce wage inequality.
ReplyDeleteInteresting things to think about as the government debates further incentivizing co-parent leave.
I took a peek at the article, and it seems like the authors inadvertently allude to the idea that egalitarianism in unpaid work may be another important solution (e.g. the idea that paternity leave minimizes the gender wage gap). To me this really suggests that while policy around parental leave is important, socialization and valuation of fathering (or co-parenting in general) are also important avenues to reduce wage inequality.
ReplyDeleteInteresting things to think about as the government debates further incentivizing co-parent leave.