Discussion paper

DP13044 The Role of Parenthood on the Gender Gap among Top Earners

Is the wage penalty due to motherhood larger among highly qualified women? In this paper, we study
the effect of parenthood on the careers of high-achieving women relative to high-achieving men in a
set of high-earning professions with either nonlinear or linear wage structures. Using Norwegian
registry data, we find that the child earnings penalty for mothers in professions with a nonlinear
wage structure, MBAs and lawyers, is substantially larger than for mothers in professions with a
linear wage structure. The gender earnings gap for MBA and law graduates is around 30%, but
substantially less for STEM and medicine graduates, 10 years after childbirth. In addition, we
provide some descriptive
statistics on the role of fertility timing on the child earnings penalty.

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Citation

Jensen, S and K Salvanes (2018), ‘DP13044 The Role of Parenthood on the Gender Gap among Top Earners‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 13044. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp13044