National Work-Family Policies and Gender Earnings Inequality in 26 OECD Countries, 1999 to 2019
The authors investigate whether work-family policies help incorporate women into the labor market, but exacerbate the gender earnings gap and motherhood penalty, especially for mothers and/or tertiary-educated women. The authors use repeated cross-sectional income data from the Luxembourg Income Stu...
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| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Socius |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251360042 |
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| author | Jennifer L. Hook Meiying Li |
| author_facet | Jennifer L. Hook Meiying Li |
| author_sort | Jennifer L. Hook |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The authors investigate whether work-family policies help incorporate women into the labor market, but exacerbate the gender earnings gap and motherhood penalty, especially for mothers and/or tertiary-educated women. The authors use repeated cross-sectional income data from the Luxembourg Income Study database (1999–2019) ( n = 26 countries, 280 country-years, 2.9 million employees) combined with an original collection of indicators on work-family policies, labor market conditions, and gender norms. The authors find that only one work-family policy, long paid parental leave (longer than six months), is associated with a larger gender earnings gap for mothers and tertiary-educated women. The negative relationship between long paid leave and women’s earning percentile is not well explained by selection, full-time status, work hours, experience, occupation, or sector, suggesting discrimination mechanisms. These findings add to the growing evidence that long paid leave specifically, as opposed to work-family policies more generally, cleaves the labor market outcomes of women from men. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-627f8e036fbc4345991da7ff461b016c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2378-0231 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Socius |
| spelling | doaj-art-627f8e036fbc4345991da7ff461b016c2025-08-20T03:56:14ZengSAGE PublishingSocius2378-02312025-07-011110.1177/23780231251360042National Work-Family Policies and Gender Earnings Inequality in 26 OECD Countries, 1999 to 2019Jennifer L. Hook0Meiying Li1University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USACornell University, Ithaca, NY, USAThe authors investigate whether work-family policies help incorporate women into the labor market, but exacerbate the gender earnings gap and motherhood penalty, especially for mothers and/or tertiary-educated women. The authors use repeated cross-sectional income data from the Luxembourg Income Study database (1999–2019) ( n = 26 countries, 280 country-years, 2.9 million employees) combined with an original collection of indicators on work-family policies, labor market conditions, and gender norms. The authors find that only one work-family policy, long paid parental leave (longer than six months), is associated with a larger gender earnings gap for mothers and tertiary-educated women. The negative relationship between long paid leave and women’s earning percentile is not well explained by selection, full-time status, work hours, experience, occupation, or sector, suggesting discrimination mechanisms. These findings add to the growing evidence that long paid leave specifically, as opposed to work-family policies more generally, cleaves the labor market outcomes of women from men.https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251360042 |
| spellingShingle | Jennifer L. Hook Meiying Li National Work-Family Policies and Gender Earnings Inequality in 26 OECD Countries, 1999 to 2019 Socius |
| title | National Work-Family Policies and Gender Earnings Inequality in 26 OECD Countries, 1999 to 2019 |
| title_full | National Work-Family Policies and Gender Earnings Inequality in 26 OECD Countries, 1999 to 2019 |
| title_fullStr | National Work-Family Policies and Gender Earnings Inequality in 26 OECD Countries, 1999 to 2019 |
| title_full_unstemmed | National Work-Family Policies and Gender Earnings Inequality in 26 OECD Countries, 1999 to 2019 |
| title_short | National Work-Family Policies and Gender Earnings Inequality in 26 OECD Countries, 1999 to 2019 |
| title_sort | national work family policies and gender earnings inequality in 26 oecd countries 1999 to 2019 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251360042 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jenniferlhook nationalworkfamilypoliciesandgenderearningsinequalityin26oecdcountries1999to2019 AT meiyingli nationalworkfamilypoliciesandgenderearningsinequalityin26oecdcountries1999to2019 |