Dissecting the Gender Pay Gap
The primary cause of the gender pay gap in developed nations is motherhood. But what about the rest of the world?
Did you know that women earn as much as men these days? It’s true; they do - until, that is, they become parents. After that, however, the sexes diverge, and women start earning less than men. This phenomenon is known as the child penalty.
In a fascinating new working paper, Henrik Kleven, Camille Landais, and Gabriel Leite-Mariante explore the child penalty in more than 100 nations, covering every major world region and every level of economic development. In this post, I’d like to share three graphs from the paper, which together tell a startling story about the causes of the gender pay gap, and how they differ from nation to nation.
Everyone’s heard of the gender pay gap, but most of us are muddled about its causes. Surveys suggest that most people think that the gap is due to women being paid less than men for the same work. According to economists, however, this widespread belief is largely a myth.
A growing body of research suggests instead that the primary cause of the gender pay gap is motherhood. Before people become parents, women earn as much as or even more than men do. Afterwards, on average, they earn less.