The Family Gap in Pay:Evidence from Seven Industrialised Countries

In this paper we use microdata on employment and earnings from avariety of industrialised countries to investigate the family gap in pay –the differential in hourly wages between women with children andwomen without children. We present results from seven countries:Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany,Finland, and Sweden. We find that there is a good deal of variationacross our sample countries in the effects of children on women’semployment. We also find large differences in the effects of children onwomen’s hourly wages even after controlling for differences betweenwomen with children and women without children in characteristicssuch as age and education.[...]