Wives, mothers and wages: Does timing matter?
by Marie Drolet
Business
and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch research paper
series, No. 186
Trends in fertility patterns suggest that young Canadian
women are delaying family formation and concentrating on developing their careers:
the average age of mothers at the birth of their first child has risen from 25.7
in 1986 to 27.1 in 1996. According to a new study based on data from the Survey
of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), the timing of motherhood appears to have
a significant bearing on the wages of Canadian women. The concept of 'delaying
parenthood' refers to the difference between a women's actual age at
first birth and an average (predicted) age at first birth (conditional on education
level, major field of study, urban size class and birth year of the mother).
In
1998, after controlling for measurable differences such as work experience and
education, the study finds that women who postponed motherhood (at least one year)
earned 6.0% more than mothers who had their children earlier in life (i.e. at
least 1 year before the predicted age at first birth).
There are many possible
reasons for the wage gap between mothers who interrupt their careers early to
have children, and those waiting until later. Notably, wage progression and promotional
opportunities occur largely early in ones career. If women "miss" this
stage due to child rearing, they may not recover (relative to others who do not
miss this stage). Women who postpone childbirth exit the labour force during a
less critical period, and hence may have higher wages in the longer run. Furthermore,
women who have no children early in their careers can be more flexible in decisions
regarding training, promotions, travel, and other factors affecting job advancement.
Those who have children early may be more restricted in their choices due to the
presence of young children.
The wage advantage of mothers who delay parenthood
persists after birth of the child but decreases with the number of years with
children. This may reflect mothers assuming traditional family roles that may
limit their involvement in the labour market when they have young children.
The wage gap between mothers who delay having children and those who have children
early is widespread among mothers of all ages, but is greatest among younger Canadian
cohorts of women. This may reflect changes in the types of careers available to
women of different cohorts. For example, the share of women in male-dominated
occupations (such as managers, and occupations in natural sciences, engineering
and mathematics) has increased over the 1971 to 1991 period. Older cohorts of
women may have faced fewer initial career opportunities and flatter age-earnings
profiles than more recent cohorts. Therefore, the wage advantage associated with
delaying motherhood may have mattered less in the types of careers entered by
older women. While among younger cohorts of mothers the wage advantage of delaying
motherhood tends to erode slightly, yet at this point, it is impossible to ascertain
whether they will persist or disappear completely by the end of their career.
View
the article in the Daily about this publication
View
the full publication
You need to use the free Adobe Reader to view PDF documents. To view (open) these files, simply click on the link. To download (save) them, right-click on the link. Note that if you are using Internet Explorer or AOL, PDF documents sometimes do not open properly. See Troubleshooting PDFs. PDF documents may not be accessible by some devices. For more information, visit the Adobe website or contact us for assistance.
