Getting a Job

Mothers experience disadvantages in the workplace in addition to those commonly associated with gender. Recent studies show employed mothers in the United States suffer a 5 percent per-child wage penalty on average after controlling for the usual human capital and occupational factors that affect wages (Budig and England 2001; Anderson, Binder, and Krause 2003). The pay gap between mothers and nonmothers under age 35 is larger than the pay gap between men and women (Crittenden 2001), and employed mothers now account for most of the “gender gap” in wages (Glass 2004).