Motherhood Penalties and Living Arrangements in China
| Published date | 01 October 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12496 |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
J Y Peking University
Y X Peking University and Princeton University∗
Motherhood Penalties and Living Arrangements
in China
Past research on the “motherhood wage penal-
ty” has been based on data from nuclear
families, leaving open the possibility that the
motherhood wage penalty may be lower or
even absent in multigenerational families. In
this article, the wage gap between mothers
and nonmothers is examined in nuclear and
multigenerational families in the context of
contemporary China, which has a long tradition
of patriarchal families. Using 1993 to 2006
China Health and Nutrition Survey data, the
magnitude and variation of motherhood penalty
is explored with xed effects models among
1,058 women. The results show that each addi-
tional child lowers hourly wages by about 12%.
In addition, the motherhood penalty is largest
for women living with their husbands’ parents,
smaller for women not living with parents, and
nil for women living with their own parents.
For the past half century, women’s movement
into the labor market has been one of the most
signicant social changes worldwide. Although
women have steadily gained relative to men
or even surpassed them in education in many
societies, a substantial and persistent wage gap
remains between men and women. Studies that
Center for Social Research, Peking University,Peking,
China 100871 (yujiaruc@gmail.com).
∗Center on Contemporary China, Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ 08544.
KeyWords: child care, gender roles,grandparents, intergen-
erational relationships, motherhood, work–family issues.
incorporate human capital factors (e.g., educa-
tion, on-the-job training, and work experience)
and structural factors (e.g., occupational sex seg-
regation and industrial sectors) explain no more
than two thirds of the observed gender wage gap
(Bibb & Form, 1977; Blau & Kahn, 2017; Eng-
land, Farkas, Kilbourne, & Dou, 1988; Roos,
1981; Weichselbaumer & Winter-Ebmer, 2005).
In the past 2 decades, scholars have gradually
shifted their attention to the family sphere in
explaining gender earnings inequality and have
found that the conict between family respon-
sibilities and work plays an important role in
gender inequality in labor market outcomes
in both developed and developing countries
(Anderson, Binder, & Krause, 2003; Avellar &
Smock, 2003; Budig & England, 2001; Eng-
land, 2005; Lundberg & Rose, 2000; Waldfogel,
1997). Becoming a mother is the most promi-
nent factor that creates such a “family gap” in
earnings. Past studies have found that mothers
earn lower hourly wages than women without
children in the United States and other indus-
trialized countries, although the magnitude of
the motherhood wage penalty varies with social
context factors, such as welfare policies (Budig
& England, 2001; Fuchs, 1988; Waldfogel,
1998a, 1998b).
To better understand the source of the moth-
erhood wage penalty, scholars have considered
various aspects of heterogeneity among moth-
ers. For example, past research has found that
the motherhood wage penalty varies with the
timing of mother’s return to the labor force,
the skills and effort required by the job, and
Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (October 2018): 1067–1086 1067
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12496
1068 Journal of Marriage and Family
other work-related factors (Anderson, Binder, &
Krause, 2002; Anderson et al., 2003; Budig &
England, 2001). In addition, family-related char-
acteristics such as marital status and time spent
in domestic labor are also found to inuence
the wage gap between mothers and nonmothers.
However,past research on the motherhood wage
penalty has all been based on data from nuclear
families, and the relationship between women’s
childbearing and wages has not been considered
in multigenerational families. In other words,
variation in the motherhood penalty across living
arrangements has hitherto received little atten-
tion in the literature. We know that East Asian
societies have a long tradition of adult children
coresiding with their parents even after mar-
riage and childbearing (Raymo, Park, Xie, &
Yeung, 2015; Thornton & Lin, 1994; Whyte,
2004; Whyte & Xu, 2003). Previous studies
have demonstrated that in such multigenera-
tional families, the exchange of services is bilat-
eral. Although adult children are supposed to
care for their elderly parents, elderly parents may
also provide help with housework and raising
grandchildren (Chen, 2004, 2005; Chen, Liu,
& Mair, 2011; Chen, Short, & Entwisle, 2000;
Chu, Xie, & Yu, 2011; Xie & Zhu, 2009; Z.
Zeng & Xie, 2014). In light of this background,
we expect that the motherhood penalty would
vary by living arrangement, although this fac-
tor’s importance has not been explored in the
previous research.
In this study, we situate our empirical work in
China, where we examine the wage gap between
mothers and nonmothers, paying close attention
to the variation in motherhood penalty by liv-
ing arrangement. Capitalizing on longitudinal
data from the Chinese Health and Nutrition Sur-
vey (CHNS), our study has two concrete aims.
First, we evaluate the magnitude of the mother-
hood wage penalty in China, a socialist coun-
try undergoing the economic transformation.
Because past studies have mainly focused on
the motherhood penalty in countries with mature
market economies such as the United States,
knowledge about the existence and magnitude
of a motherhood wage penalty in a transform-
ing country is quite limited. Thus, we contribute
to the literature on the motherhood penalty by
situating women’s labor market performance in
postreform China, a society where the transfor-
mation from planned to market economy may
have disadvantaged women relative to men in
earnings (Shu & Bian, 2003; Zhang & Hannum,
2015). Second, we explore the variation in moth-
erhood penalty across different forms of living
arrangement. Differences in motherhood penalty
by living arrangement may provide more insight
into how the family context in general inuences
women’s labor market outcomes.
T I
Explanations of the Motherhood Penalty
Numerous studies have found evidence for the
motherhood wage penalty: women with young
children suffered a wage disadvantage ranging
between 5% and 20% in the United States,
United Kingdom, and other Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development coun-
tries (Harkness & Waldfogel, 2003; Joshi, Paci,
& Waldfogel, 1999; Killewald & Gough, 2013;
Lundberg & Rose, 2000; Neumark & Koren-
man, 1994; Waldfogel, 1997, 1998a, 1998b).
Although it is widely accepted that having chil-
dren is associated with women’s lower wages,
theoretical explanations for this phenomenon
are diverse. The explanations can be broadly
grouped into the following two categories:
(a) supply-side explanations involving human
capital investment, job performance, and occu-
pational characteristics, and (b) demand-side
explanations focusing on discrimination.
The most commonly applied theoretical
explanation for the wage effects of children
on women’s wages is based on human cap-
ital theory, developed by Becker (1964) and
Mincer (1974). According to this theory, work
experience has a positive impact on wages
because on-the-job training and skill develop-
ment improve a worker’s productivity. Mothers
accumulate less work experience and on-the-job
training when compared with nonmothers
through three concrete mechanisms. First,
mothers may temporarily withdraw from the
labor force to care for young children and thus
stop accumulating human capital. Second, even
when they are employed, mothers may spend
less time at work than nonmothers. Third, work
experience accumulated prior to the birth of a
child may depreciate in value if mothers stop
updating knowledge and skills required for
their jobs, especially when pursuing profes-
sional careers (Polachek, 1979, 1981, 1984,
1985). The extent to which work experience
can actually explain the motherhood wage
penalty, however, is continually under debate.
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