Motherhood or marriage penalty? A comparative perspective on employment and wage in East Asia and Western countries

• Published date: 01 February 2024
• Author: Ji Young Kang,Wonjin Lee,Sunyu Ham,Julia Shu‐Huah Wang
• Date: 01 February 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12935

RESEARCH

Motherhood or marriage penalty? A comparative

perspective on employment and wage in East Asia

and Western countries

Ji Young Kang

1

|Wonjin Lee

2

|Sunyu Ham

2

|

Julia Shu-Huah Wang

3

1

Department of Social Welfare, Chungnam

National University, Daejeon City,

South Korea

2

Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs,

Sejong City, South Korea

3

Department of Social Work, National Taiwan

University, Taipei City, Taiwan

Correspondence

Ji Young Kang, 34134 99 Daehak-ro Yuseong-

gu Daejeon, Chungnam National University,

South Korea.

Email: jiyoungksw@gmail.com

Funding information

This research was supported by the Asia

Research Foundation Grant funded by the

Seoul National University Asia Center.

Abstract

Objective: This study examined cross-national variations

in marriage and motherhood penalties between Western

and East Asian countries.

Background: Little is known about how and to what extent

motherhood affects women’s labor market outcomes in

East Asia compared to Western welfare countries. We

examine employment, wage, and labor income with regard

to the motherhood penalty.

Method: We selected the five countries of Finland,

Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States

and applied probit and Heckman selection models using

Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Wave IX and Korean

Labor and Income Panel Survey data.

Results: Variations between Western countries and East

Asian welfare states are highlighted. Married mothers with

children in East Asian countries are greatly disadvantaged

in employment compared to those in Western countries.

Having a child is associated with lower labor income and

wages by 2.9% to 4.5% across the countries, but we do not

find a significant association in Germany and Korea.

Conclusion: Women experience various dimensions of

motherhood penalties across countries. East Asian women

are more likely to face both marriage and motherhood

penalties than others.

Implication: Marriage and motherhood in East Asian

countries should be understood differently from those in

Western contexts. Marriage and motherhood are life

events that are associated with women’s employment deci-

sions and work opportunities in East Asian countries.

Received: 7 September 2021Revised: 12 March 2023Accepted: 20 May 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12935

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2024;73:223–246. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 223

KEYWORDS

cross-national variations, employment, labor income, motherhood

penalty, wage

The gender-based wage gap has narrowed over the years (Weichselbaumer & Winter-

Ebmer, 2005), and therefore, public attention has now shifted to wage inequality between

women—with and without children. This inequality is often referred to as the motherhood wage

penalty, and it is a common phenomenon in many Western countries. Recent literature reveals

the extent to which motherhood affects women’s wages (Avellar & Smock, 2003; Budig &

England, 2001; Cukrowska-Torzewska & Matysiak, 2020; Petersen et al., 2010), whether the

motherhood penalty declines over time in one’s life (Kahn et al., 2014), how the impact of hav-

ing children varies across the earnings distribution in liberal welfare regimes (Cooke, 2014), or

whether it declines across different age cohorts (Jee et al., 2019). However, barring a few studies

(Ng & Chen, 2018; J. Yu & Xie, 2018; Zhao, 2018), the literature to date has mainly focused on

the motherhood penalty in Western countries. Consequently, it remains relatively unexplored

whether this penalty holds true outside of Western welfare states, especially in East Asia.

East Asian welfare nations are unlike their Western counterparts. These countries, which

experience rapid economic growth because of export-oriented or government-led industrializa-

tion, offer their citizens relatively less generous social benefits; they are, therefore, often called

“productivist welfare states”(Holliday, 2000, p. 709). In particular, in these countries, public

support for maternal employment and childcare services are at an incipient stage compared to

Western welfare states (W.-H. Yu, 2009). Most East Asian cultures practice Confucian values

and family norms that promote family unity, traditionally considering men as breadwinners

and women as housekeepers (Raymo et al., 2015; W.-H. Yu, 2009). Such strong family values

with gender-based division of labor imply higher disparities in labor supply and wages. How-

ever, little is known about how and to what extent motherhood affects women’s labor market

outcomes in East Asia compared to Western welfare countries.

Even among East Asian countries, which are similar in terms of being productivist welfare

states, there are significant variations related to gender issues. Gender inequality in the labor

market is greater in Japan and South Korea (hereafter Korea) than in Taiwan and China

(Brinton et al., 1995; Jung et al., 2012). Similarly, Taiwan and China have more progressive

attitudes toward mothers’employment, whereas Koreans follow traditional gender-based roles,

where wives are seen as caregivers and housekeepers (Lee, 2016). Thus, it is necessary to explore

different patterns or degrees of motherhood penalties among East Asian States.

This study, where we examine cross-national variations in employment and wage gaps

between mothers and childless women, contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it

expands insights on how motherhood influences employment outcomes across countries, not

only across Western welfare states but also in East Asian countries. Comparative studies often

focus on Western countries, leaving East Asia out (Kleven et al., 2019). At the same time, stud-

ies on the motherhood penalty in East Asian countries were limited in providing a comparative

perspective as they focused on the motherhood penalty in one country only (Hsu &

Chiou, 2015; J. Yu & Xie, 2018; Zhao, 2018) and lacked efforts to compare Asia with the West

(Brinton & Oh, 2019; Jung et al., 2012; Kan & Hertog, 2017; Ng & Chen, 2021; Qian &

Sayer, 2016). We focus on three representative cases of welfare regimes—Germany as a conser-

vative welfare state, Finland as a social democratic welfare state, and the United States as a lib-

eral welfare state, and we add two emerging East Asian welfare states but with different gender

norms: Taiwan with a more progressive gender norm and Korea with high gender inequality. In

so doing, we also used a comparable data set and the same empirical approach, specification,

and sample selection. As we compare the motherhood penalty in the East and the West, we take

224 FAMILY RELATIONS