The Motherhood Penalty at Work: What Research Actually Shows
Becoming a mother can change a person's career in ways that becoming a father does not always mirror.
Researchers often describe this pattern as the motherhood penalty.
The term has been used to study differences in wages, hiring, workplace evaluations, and career outcomes between mothers and otherwise comparable women without children.
Research has found evidence of a motherhood penalty—but the evidence does not support one simple explanation.
A major meta-analysis of wage studies found an average motherhood wage gap of roughly 3.6% to 3.8%, while also finding that the size and causes of the gap varied considerably across countries and studies (Cukrowska-Torzewska & Matysiak, 2020).
Experimental hiring research has separately found that mothers can be evaluated less favorably than equally qualified women without children (Correll et al., 2007).
So the more accurate question is not: “Are mothers always penalized at work?”
It is: Where does the motherhood penalty appear, what does research suggest contributes to it, and what should employers avoid assuming about working mothers?
Note: This article provides general information about workplace diversity and employment research. It is not legal advice.
What Is the Motherhood Penalty?
The motherhood penalty is a research term used to describe disadvantages associated with motherhood in employment outcomes.
Depending on the study, researchers may examine:
wages;
hiring callbacks;
perceived competence;
recommended starting salary;
advancement; or
other career outcomes.
The concept does not mean that every mother earns less or experiences discrimination.
It refers to measurable differences that researchers have observed between mothers and comparable women without children in particular datasets or experiments.
What Does Research Show About Hiring Bias Against Mothers?
One of the most influential studies on the motherhood penalty was published by Shelley Correll, Stephen Benard, and In Paik in the American Journal of Sociology.
The researchers used both a laboratory experiment and an audit study involving actual employers.
Participants evaluated equally qualified same-gender job candidates whose application materials differed in whether the candidate appeared to be a parent.
In the laboratory experiment, mothers were rated less favorably on measures including perceived competence and recommended starting salary.
Men were not similarly penalized for being fathers and sometimes benefited from parenthood in the evaluations (Correll et al., 2007).
The researchers then sent fictitious applications to real employers.
In that audit study, equally qualified women presented as mothers received callbacks at a lower rate than women presented as non-mothers (Correll et al., 2007).
Those findings provide evidence that motherhood stereotypes can affect hiring evaluations.
But this was one set of studies conducted in a particular context.
It should not be interpreted as evidence that every employer treats mothers differently.
What About the Motherhood Wage Penalty?
The wage literature is much larger than any one hiring experiment.
Cukrowska-Torzewska and Matysiak conducted a 2020 meta-analysis using results from 39 peer-reviewed articles.
Across the estimates they analyzed, the average motherhood wage gap was approximately 3.6% to 3.8% (Cukrowska-Torzewska & Matysiak, 2020).
But the authors found that the size of the gap differed substantially across countries and studies.
They also found that the mechanisms were not identical.
For estimates based on the total number of children, differences in work experience and career interruptions associated with childbearing explained a substantial part of the observed wage gap.
For estimates involving one child, occupation, sector, and other job choices played a larger role (Cukrowska-Torzewska & Matysiak, 2020).
That matters because the motherhood wage penalty should not automatically be interpreted as: “Employers simply pay mothers less because they are mothers.”
Some research supports employer bias as part of the story.
Other differences can reflect time out of the workforce, job changes, working arrangements, occupation, sector, and broader institutional conditions.
What Does U.S.-Focused Research Find?
A separate 2020 meta-regression by Megan de Linde Leonard and T. D. Stanley reviewed 49 studies containing 1,895 estimates of the motherhood wage penalty.
After accounting for methodological differences and other sources of variation across studies, the researchers estimated a motherhood wage penalty of approximately 4% ± 2% per child for U.S. mothers (de Linde Leonard & Stanley, 2020).
The authors concluded that their findings were most consistent with explanations involving perceived productivity or discrimination.
That does not mean those mechanisms explain every mother's wage outcome.
The study itself was designed to synthesize a large and highly variable research literature.
Is the Motherhood Penalty the Same Everywhere?
No.
One of the clearest findings from the research is that context matters.
The Cukrowska-Torzewska and Matysiak meta-analysis found substantial differences between countries.
The residual motherhood wage gap was smallest in Nordic countries, Belgium, and France and larger in some Central and Eastern European and Anglo-Saxon countries (Cukrowska-Torzewska & Matysiak, 2020).
That suggests the motherhood penalty is shaped by more than individual employer decisions.
Workplace structures, family policies, childcare systems, career interruptions, occupation, and labor-market institutions can all affect employment outcomes after women become mothers.
So it would be too broad to treat the motherhood penalty as a fixed percentage that applies to every woman.
Why Do Motherhood Stereotypes Matter?
Research on hiring suggests one mechanism may involve assumptions about competence and commitment.
In the Correll study, equally qualified mothers were rated as less competent than otherwise comparable women without children (Correll et al., 2007).
Federal employment guidance also recognizes the problem of caregiver stereotypes.
The EEOC explains that federal law does not create a protected category for caregivers simply because they are caregivers.
However, employment decisions based on sex stereotypes can violate Title VII.
The agency gives examples such as assuming a woman with young children will be less committed to work, removing a mother from high-profile assignments without evidence of declining performance, or treating male and female caregivers differently because of gender expectations (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC], 2007).
That distinction is important.
An employer may evaluate an employee based on actual performance.
What federal law does not permit is making employment decisions based on sex-based assumptions about how motherhood will supposedly affect performance.
Is Motherhood Itself a Protected Status Under Federal Law?
Not by itself.
The EEOC states that Title VII does not generally prohibit discrimination based solely on parental or caregiver status.
For example, treating mothers and fathers equally unfavorably because they are parents would not necessarily create a Title VII sex-discrimination claim based on parental status alone.
But different treatment can become unlawful when it is connected to a protected characteristic.
Examples may include:
treating mothers less favorably than fathers because of sex;
assuming women will be less committed because they have children;
steering female caregivers away from advancement opportunities because of gender stereotypes; or
making employment decisions based on pregnancy or another protected characteristic.
(EEOC, 2007)
State and local laws may provide additional protections.
What Can Employers Take From Motherhood-Penalty Research?
The research does not establish one universal policy for eliminating motherhood-related career differences.
It does suggest several areas employers can examine
Evaluate Performance Rather Than Assumed Availability
Becoming a mother does not automatically tell an employer:
how committed someone is;
whether they want a promotion;
whether they are willing to travel;
whether they can take on a difficult assignment; or
whether their performance will decline.
The EEOC specifically warns against employment decisions based on those kinds of sex-based assumptions (EEOC, 2007).
Let Employees Make Their Own Career Choices
An employer may believe it is being considerate by withholding a demanding assignment from a new mother.
But the EEOC describes this kind of “benevolent” stereotyping as potentially unlawful when the decision is based on sex-based assumptions rather than the employee's wishes or performance (EEOC, 2007).
Ask rather than assume.
Look at Advancement as Well as Hiring
The motherhood penalty is not only a recruiting issue.
Career differences can accumulate through:
access to high-profile work;
promotion opportunities;
pay decisions;
flexibility;
career interruptions; and
occupation or job changes.
Employers interested in career equity can therefore look beyond who gets hired and examine who continues to receive opportunities after becoming a parent.
Why the Motherhood Penalty Matters for Workplace Diversity
Workplace equity does not stop when someone receives a job offer.
People's careers continue changing as their lives change.
Parenthood is one of those changes.
The research does not justify assuming that every workplace disadvantage experienced by a mother is caused by bias.
But it does show that motherhood has been associated with measurable differences in wages and employment evaluations across a substantial body of research.
That makes the motherhood penalty relevant to Diversity.com's broader focus on fair access to opportunity throughout a career.
An inclusive workplace does not have to pretend caregiving responsibilities do not exist.
It does need to distinguish between: what an employee actually does and what someone assumes she will do because she is a mother.
Final Thoughts
The motherhood penalty is real as a research phenomenon.
But it is not one universal experience with one universal cause.
Studies have found evidence of mothers receiving lower hiring evaluations and facing wage differences compared with women without children.
At the same time, broader wage research shows that career interruptions, occupation, sector, working conditions, and national context also help explain the differences researchers observe.
That nuance matters.
For employers, the goal should not be to assume every working mother needs the same support—or that motherhood automatically changes someone's ambition or ability.
It is much simpler:
Evaluate the employee in front of you rather than the stereotype attached to motherhood.
For Diversity.com, that is what makes the motherhood penalty an equity issue.
Fair opportunity means people should be able to become parents without having assumptions about parenthood quietly replace evidence about their actual work.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the motherhood penalty?
The motherhood penalty is a research term describing employment disadvantages associated with motherhood, including differences found in wages, hiring evaluations, and other workplace outcomes.
The size and form of the penalty vary across studies and labor-market contexts.
How much is the motherhood wage penalty?
There is no single percentage that applies everywhere.
A 2020 international meta-analysis found an average motherhood wage gap of approximately 3.6% to 3.8% across the studies it analyzed (Cukrowska-Torzewska & Matysiak, 2020).
A separate meta-regression estimated a penalty of approximately 4% ± 2% per child for U.S. mothers (de Linde Leonard & Stanley, 2020).
Are mothers less likely to be hired?
Some experimental research has found hiring disadvantages for mothers.
Correll and colleagues found that equally qualified mothers received less favorable evaluations and fewer employer callbacks than non-mothers in the settings they studied (Correll et al., 2007).
That finding should not be generalized to every employer.
Is discrimination against mothers illegal?
Motherhood or caregiver status alone is not generally a protected category under Title VII.
However, treating mothers differently because of sex-based stereotypes can violate federal employment discrimination law (EEOC, 2007).
Other federal, state, or local protections may also apply depending on the circumstances.
Is the motherhood penalty caused only by discrimination?
No.
Research points to multiple possible contributors, including employer bias, career interruptions, lost work experience, occupation and sector choices, job characteristics, and differences in national policy and labor-market environments (Cukrowska-Torzewska & Matysiak, 2020).
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Sources & References
Correll, S. J., Benard, S., & Paik, I. (2007). Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty? American Journal of Sociology, 112(5), 1297–1338. https://doi.org/10.1086/511799
Cukrowska-Torzewska, E., & Matysiak, A. (2020). The motherhood wage penalty: A meta-analysis. Social Science Research, 88–89, Article 102416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2020.102416
de Linde Leonard, M., & Stanley, T. D. (2020). The wages of mothers' labor: A meta-regression analysis. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(5), 1534–1552. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12693
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2007, May 23). Enforcement guidance: Unlawful disparate treatment of workers with caregiving responsibilities. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/enforcement-guidance-unlawful-disparate-treatment-workers-caregiving-responsibilities
