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THE MOTHERHOOD PENALTY Becoming a parent produces very different professional outcomes for women and men. Mothers working full time are paid 71 percent as much as fathers (National Women's Law Center, 2018). Taking time away from the workforce or cutting back hours, both more common scenarios for mothers than fathers, hurts earnings (Bertrand et al., 2010). Many employers and industries still prioritize long, continuous, traditional work hours rather than flexible schedules, a preference that tends to put women with children at a disadvantage (Goldin, 2014). In 2017, 71 percent of mothers of children under age 18 participated in the labor force, compared with 93 percent of fathers of children under age 18 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018f). Many working mothers also encounter a "motherhood penalty," which extends beyond their actual time out of the workforce. Experimental studies have documented that employers are less likely to hire mothers (including mothers who never left the workforce) than they are to hire women without children, and when employers do make an offer to a mother, they offer her a lower salary than they offer to other women (Correll £r Benard, 2007; Kricheli-Katz, 2012). The magnitude of the penalty for mothers in the workforce has remained steady for the past few decades or even increased slightly for some mothers after accounting for education and work experience (Lee et al., 2018). Fathers, in contrast, do not suffer a penalty compared with other working men. Many fathers actually receive higher wages after having a child, known as the "fatherhood bonus" (Killewald, 2013; Budig, 2014). The very different experiences of women and men who become parents are the result of gendered norms and expectations, institutional systems built around a worker who is not a primary caretaker, and a lack of systemic supports for new parents in the United States. Nearly every other country in the world mandates access to paid leave for new mothers, and most developed countries provide similar leave for new fathers. In the United States, there is no national paid parental leave right or system and only 15 percent of workers receive paid parental leave from their employers (Raub et al., 2018, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017). As a result, most new parents must cobble together other types of paid leave, take shorter leaves than they would prefer, or return to work as soon as possible after childbirth to avoid lost wages. Another factor making it difficult for women to participate fully in the American workforce is the expectation they will continue to be primary caretakers. Compounding this is limited availability and high price of child care, especially care for young infants and toddlers. The average price of child care in the United States is $8,800 per child per year, and the average for infants in child care center settings is $11,100. Costs are much higher in cities and states with higher costs of living (Child Care Aware of America, 2017). Paying for child care for one or more children may be impractical or impossible for parents with low incomes, who are disproportionately women. As a result, mothers who might otherwise remain in the workforce may lose years of earnings and salary history as they care for their children. THE SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT THE GENDER PAY GAP 1 Fall 2018 Edition AAUW • www.aauw.org