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Bibler, Andrew J. (2026): Labor supply responses to tax credit disbursements: Evidence from the EITC schedule. In: Economic Inquiry, Jg. 64, H. 2, S. 555-573. DOI:10.1111/ecin.70040

Abstract

"The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) schedule and lump-sum disbursement can create significant labor supply responses. I estimate labor supply responses to tax credit disbursements using a regression kink design. Among single workers, credits increase labor supply around the time that tax credits are disbursed at the first and second kinks in the EITC schedule but reduce labor supply on the intensive margin at the third kink. There is some evidence of heterogeneous responses among married women, including an increase in labor supply near the third kink, although findings in the sample of married women appear less robust." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Cui, Sizhan, Zhuofei Lu & Senhu Wang (2026): Gender and Parenthood Differences in Work Time Fragmentation in the United States: The Moderating Role of Occupational Class. In: Social indicators research, Jg. 182, H. 1. DOI:10.1007/s11205-026-03815-x

Abstract

"Work time fragmentation refers to the number of distinct work episodes in a day, indicating disruptions in work schedules and the degree of workday fragmentation. With the expansion of flexible labor markets in the U.S., work time fragmentation has become more prevalent. Although gender and parenthood differences in labor market outcomes and family responsibilities are well studied, their manifestation in work time fragmentation remains underexplored. Using data from the American Time Use Survey 2003–2023 and OLS regression models, this study is the first to examine gender and parenthood differences in work time fragmentation and their variation by occupational class. Findings indicate that women experience greater fragmentation than men. For women, those with dependent children, particularly those with young children, show greater fragmentation than women without coresidential children. This pattern is most pronounced among those in higher occupational classes. For men, there is no evidence showing that there is a difference in work time fragmentation intensity by parenthood status or occupational class. The findings underscore the importance of equitable parental leave, shared caregiving responsibilities, and supportive workplace structures in addressing these dynamics and promoting equity in work-family relationships." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Deming, Sarah M. (2026): Antecedents of Motherhood Penalties: The Work-Care Preferences of Socioeconomically Diverse Expectant Mothers. In: Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Jg. 47, H. 1, S. 74-94. DOI:10.1007/s10834-025-10071-7

Abstract

"This study contributes to the work-family literature in three ways. First, it challenges the emphasis on the economic impacts of motherhood by introducing a framework—Work-Care Preferences (WCP)—that acknowledges how women’s personal orientations to paid work and to motherhood converge to create varied preferences for how (or whether) to best combine the two. Second, documenting how women’s WCPs are influenced by socioeconomic status illuminates a previously unidentified mechanism by which motherhood penalties are unequally experienced. Lastly, by highlighting how expectant mothers’ personal conceptions of paid work influence their subsequent WCPs, it offers opportunities to design workplace and policy-level interventions to support maternal employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Denderski, Piotr & Tim Obermeier (2026): Household taxation, nonlinear occupations, and gender gaps. (CEP discussion paper / Centre for Economic Performance 2140), London, 23 S., App.

Abstract

"An enduring source of gender inequality is that some high-paying ("nonlinear") occupations penalize balancing work and household time commitments, as emphasized by Goldin (2014). We ask how household taxation interacts with these occupational differences to shape gender gaps in hours, wages, and occupational choice, and whether these differences materially affect the impact of tax reforms. We address these questions in a structural Roy model of household labor supply with occupation-specific earnings-hours nonlinearities and progressive taxation, calibrated to US data. We find that a balanced-budget switch to separately filed progressive taxes significantly reduces the gender gaps in hours and occupational choice, while the wage gap declines more modestly. These improvements arise because the reform lowers marginal tax rates for secondary earners and raises them for primary earners. By contrast, proportional taxation yields much smaller reductions in gender gaps. In both reforms, the standard labor-supply channel accounts for roughly two-thirds of the overall taxable- income response, while the convex earnings-hours relationship amplifies these effects and explains most of the remainder. Occupational switching contributes little because those who do switch are negatively selected." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gibbs, Chloe, Esra Kose & Maria Rosales-Rueda (2026): More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment. (NBER working paper / National Bureau of Economic Research 34831), Cambridge, Mass, 35 S.

Abstract

"Women's employment remains highly sensitive to childcare constraints, making childcare availability a critical lever for supporting mothers' labor force attachment. We study the effects of expanded full-day programming in Head Start, using the 2016 federal funding initiative that targeted grantees with low full-day enrollment. Linking administrative program data, geo-coded center locations, and household data on employment, we estimate a difference-in-differences design by comparing mothers of young children in treated and untreated areas. The policy increased full-day enrollment by 19 percent and raised single mothers' employment (1.9%), hours (2.5%), and earnings (6.5%). Results show that extending program duration meaningfully improves maternal labor market outcomes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Harrington, Emma & Matthew E. Kahn (2026): Has the Rise of Work from Home Reduced the Motherhood Penalty in the Labor Market? In: National Tax Journal, Jg. 79, H. 2, S. 507-527. DOI:10.1086/740865

Abstract

"When women become mothers, many step back from the workforce. Could work from home (WFH) mitigate this motherhood penalty, particularly in traditionally family-unfriendly careers? We leverage prepandemic technological changes that increased the feasibility of WFH in some college degrees but not others. In degrees where WFH increased, motherhood gaps in employment narrowed: for every 10 percent increase in WFH, mothers’ employment rates increased by 0.78 percentage points (or 0.94 percent) relative to other women’s. These changes are driven by occupations with inflexible time demands. Panel data show that women who could WFH before childbirth are less likely to exit the workforce." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hendrick, Sara, Melissa J. Williams & Emily C. Bianchi (2026): Gender Differences in Parents’ Well-Being Reverse During Unemployment. In: Personality and social psychology bulletin, S. 1-19. DOI:10.1177/01461672261439419

Abstract

"Past research suggests that parenthood tends to predict well-being for men more than women. We propose that during involuntary unemployment, this pattern will reverse, such that parenthood will predict well-being for women more than men. Because breadwinning remains central to societal expectations of fatherhood, employment allows fathers to simultaneously fulfill parental and professional obligations. Typically, this reduces fathers’ role strain. However, we argue that unemployment may threaten both work and parent identities for fathers and therefore undermine well-being for fathers more than mothers. We find support for this hypothesis using a large, longitudinal study of unemployed individuals (Study 1) and a nationally representative sample (Study 2). Finally, a follow-up experiment (Study 3) supports our prediction that fathers are more likely than mothers to view paid employment as necessary for good parenting, which predicts their lower well-being during unemployment. This work contributes to research on parenthood, gender roles, and unemployment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Johnson, Katherine M. & Christina McCarthy (2026): The leave gap: actual versus optimal maternity leave in a sample of US breastfeeding women. In: Community, work & family, Jg. 29, H. 1, S. 43-50. DOI:10.1080/13668803.2024.2339318

Abstract

"Access to quality parental leave is a prominent US work-family issue and crucial for supporting maternal and child health, including breastfeeding outcomes. This is even more salient given the recently updated US public health recommendation to breastfeed for up to two-plus years. Yet little prior research on work-breastfeeding conflict, has addressed breastfeeding women's perceptions of maternity leave. How much leave do breastfeeding women want relative to what they receive? What shapes their optimal leave perceptions? Using in-depth interview data, we first examined the leave gap between optimal and actual leave duration. Most interviewees reported a leave deficit, averaging 20 weeks. We then examined perceptions of optimal leave - identifying four themes: (1) making comparisons, (2) role transition and adjustment, (3) the developing child, and (4) return-readiness. Overall, we argue that it is important to consider ideal leave and the leave gap, which may produce further strain for breastfeeding employees." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kamal, Fariha, Asha Sundaram & Cristina J. Tello-Trillo (2026): Family-Leave Mandates and Female Labor at U.S. Firms: Evidence from a Trade Shock. In: The Review of Economics and Statistics, Jg. 108, H. 4, S. 931-947. DOI:10.1162/rest_a_01436

Abstract

"We examine how the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) impacts the gender composition at U.S. firms experiencing a negative demand shock. Combining changes in Chinese imports across industries between 2000 and 2003 and a sharp regression discontinuity to identify FMLA status, we find that an increase in import competition decreases the share of female employment, earnings, and promotions at FMLA relative to non-FMLA firms. This effect is driven by women in prime childbearing ages and without college degrees; and is pronounced at firms with all male managers. These results suggest that job-protected leave mandates may exacerbate gender inequalities in response to adverse shocks." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © MIT Press Journals) ((en))

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Liu, Andrew Yizhou (2026): Paid family leave and occupational mobility. In: Applied Economics, Jg. 58, H. 34, S. 6958-6969. DOI:10.1080/00036846.2025.2526858

Abstract

"Paid family leave (PFL) programmes provide temporary financial support and workplace flexibility for mothers, potentially influencing their occupational choices after childbirth. I find that state-level PFL programs reduce downward occupational mobility among women aged 19 to 35 with children aged 0 to 3 by approximately 42%, with stronger effects among high-school educated, black, and single mothers. However, these policies have no significant impact on upward occupational mobility, indicating that PFL alone may be insufficient for reducing the gender gap in occupation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Maralani, Vida, Camille Portier & Berkay Özcan (2026): Early Childhood Investments and Women’s Work Outcomes across the Life Course. In: Sociological Science, Jg. 13, S. 214-241. DOI:10.15195/v13.a9

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Marchingiglio, Riccardo & Michael Poyker (2026): The Economics of Gender-Specific Minimum Wage Legislation. In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 44, H. 3, S. 1009-1063. DOI:10.1086/733493

Abstract

"Using full count U.S. census data, we study the impact of early 20th-century state-industry-specific minimum wage laws that primarily targeted female employees. Our triple-difference estimates suggest a null impact of the minimum wage laws, potentially reflecting disemployment effects and the positive selection bias of the workers remaining in the labor force. When comparing county-industry Trends between counties straddling state borders, female employment is lower by around 3.1% in affected county-industry cells. We further investigate the implications for own-wage elasticity of labor demand as afunction of cross-industry concentration, the channels of substitution between men and women, and heterogeneity by marital status." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Michelmore, Katherine & Natasha Pilkauskas (2026): More than just work: The effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on job quality. In: Labour Economics, Jg. 99. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2026.102867

Abstract

"Using a simulated benefits approach and data from the Current Population Survey we examine how expansions to the EITC affected the job quality of unmarried mothers in the U.S. Following expansions to the EITC, we find increases in employment, wages, and fringe benefits such as employer-provided health insurance and retirement plans among unmarried mothers, all indicators of improvements in job quality. On the other hand, we also find evidence that the EITC increases overwork, or working >45 h per week, a negative indicator of job quality. Though mothers are not moved into high-quality professional jobs, they are more likely to work in manual labour and transportation occupations, which are middle-income jobs, and these mothers are also more likely to have a unionized job, which is correlated with other positive job quality measures. Overall, the findings paint a nuanced picture of how the EITC affects job quality among unmarried mothers, with many indicators of improvements in job quality, alongside a few indicators of declines in job quality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.) ((en))

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Musick, Kelly & Wonjeong Jeong (2026): State-level gender inequality and couples’ relative earnings following parenthood over four decades. In: Social science research, Jg. 135. DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103302

Abstract

"We draw from gender perspectives on the division of labor and emerging research on structural sexism to empirically evaluate how systemic gender inequality shapes within-couple earnings inequality at the turning point of parenthood. Our data on pre- and post-birth earnings come from successive couple-level panels of the Current Population Survey over four decades (1982–2020, N = 87,694 couples and 175,388 couple-observations), merged to state-level indicators of gender inequality spanning the same time period that tap the devaluation of work done by women across multiple domains. Results from fixed effect models suggest that state-level gender inequality shapes couples' responses to parenthood in meaningful ways, with steeper declines in wives' relative earnings among new parents living in states that place lower value on women's work. The estimated effect of sexism is gendered, operating through wives' earnings. It persists through the early childbearing years and across decades, and it varies little by measures of couples' social advantage. Evidence that structural sexism exacerbates earnings inequality among parents is robust, with implications for mothers' economic vulnerability and well-being." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.) ((en))

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Oesch, Daniel, Oliver Lipps, Roujman Shahbazian, Erik Bihagen & Katy Morris (2026): Occupational earning potential: a new measure of social hierarchy in Europe and the US. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 42, H. 3, S. 421-441. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcaf035

Abstract

"Social stratification is interested in unequal life chances and assumes the existence of a hierarchy of more or less advantageous occupations. Yet occupations are not easily translated into a linear hierarchical measure. Influential scales combine multiple indicators and lack intuitive interpretation. We therefore present a new scale based on occupations’ earnings potential (OEP). OEP measures the median earnings of occupations and expresses them as percentiles of the overall earnings structure: if mechanics earn the national median wage, their OEP is 50. We construct national OEP scales using annual microdata pooled over several decades for Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US. Consistent with the Treiman constant, these national scales are highly correlated over time and across countries, justifying the use of one common OEP scale. When applied to another European dataset, the common OEP scale explains a quarter of the variance in earnings—and works as well for men as women and as well for countries used to construct the scale as for other countries. Moreover, it is associated with the causes (education) and consequences (social mobility) that the theory expects. OEP thereby provides a simple and parsimonious indicator of economic advantage that can be meaningfully interpreted." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Schütz, Jana (2026): Beliefs about the gender pension gap. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 184. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105244

Abstract

"I conduct an online survey of 3000 respondents in the United States to examine individuals’ beliefs about the gender pension gap. By including an information provision experiment in which treated respondents are informed about the size of the gender pension gap, I examine whether receiving this information causally affects respondents’ perceptions of the fairness and drivers of the gender pension gap and their support for policies aimed at reducing it. I find that most respondents underestimate the gender pension gap and that treated respondents are less likely to perceive the gender pension gap as fair. In addition, treated respondents perceive the unequal distribution of care work and gender differences in wages as more important drivers of the gap, and their demand for remedial policies such as targeted financial education increases significantly. This increase in policy demand is driven by male respondents and Republicans." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2026 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V.) ((en))

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Shattuck, Rachel M. (2026): Cross-cohort employment differences among U.S. mothers of young children: The role of nonparental childcare. In: Social science research, Jg. 133. DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103261

Abstract

"Following increased mothers' employment since the later 20th century, the majority of U.S. mothers now experience employment with children under age three. Most use nonparental childcare (NPC) while employed. NPC can include care provided in childcare centers and preschools, as well as by nannies, babysitters and relatives, and in family childcare homes. Changes since the 1980s to care costs and availability, labor market conditions, family structures, and public assistance policies may result in differences in the predictive relationship between NPC use and employment among late-20th vs. early-21st century mothers. I use National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979) (“Baby-Boomers”) and 1997 (“Millennials”) data to compare monthly likelihood of full-time employment, part-time employment, and employment exit—and how NPC use differently affects these—among mothers of children under three. A hybrid model including within-person and between-person components compares women to themselves at different points in time when they are employed either with or without NPC. NPC use increases full-time employment, and employment stability, for mothers in both cohorts. However, Millennials use NPC more than Baby-Boomers. Furthermore, NPC increases the likelihood of maintaining full-time employment, and transitioning from part-time to full-time employment, by larger magnitudes for Millennials than for Baby-Boomers. Supplementary descriptive analyses show changed care types, increased care costs, and increased nonstandard employment, all of which may contribute to this cross-cohort difference. Results demonstrate how NPC plays a key role in supporting employment within individual women's life courses, and how these effects may differ across different social and historical settings." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.) ((en))

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Stadelmann-Steffen, Isabelle, Dominique Oehrli & Meret Lütolf (2026): Policy configurations and the elasticity of gendered patterns of paid and unpaid work-evidence from comparative conjoint analyses. In: Social forces. DOI:10.1093/sf/soag038

Abstract

"A considerable number of scholars have discussed the role that family policies play in shaping the gendered division of labor within households. The majority of this research has focused on childcare and parental leave policies and their relationship with maternal employment. In this article, we adopt a more holistic approach to study gender-specific pathways toward more equalized work patterns by investigating the role of various family policy conditions, both past and future, on paid and unpaid work patterns among men and women. We present novel survey data from five countries, including conjoint analyses, which enables us to consider that the elasticity of households to move toward more equal divisions of work may be contingent on the gender regime in which individuals live as well as on their desire and opportunity to change. Our results demonstrate that the elasticity to change strongly depends on current work patterns both at the household and the country level. Moreover, long parental leave for men and financial incentives have the strongest potential to trigger changes in work intentions. Nevertheless, significant discrepancies in the impact of policy measures between countries, as well as between women and men, can be discerned." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Stinebrickner, Todd, Ralph Stinebrickner & Paul Sullivan (2026): Job Tasks, Task-Specific Work Experience, and the Gender Wage Gap. In: Journal of Human Capital, Jg. 20, H. 1, S. 1-34. DOI:10.1086/738042

Abstract

"Taking advantage of unique longitudinal task data from the Berea Panel Study, we provide a new ex-amination of the gender wage gap, paying particular attention to gender differences in types of work experience. Access to longitudinal individual-level job task information, along with unique time allo-cation information, allows us to produce quantitative measures of current and past tasks. We provide the first empirical evidence on gender differences in time spent on tasks, and show that gender differ-ences in task-specific experience, in particular high-skilled information experience, are important for predicting the widening of the gender wage gap over the career." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Tabor, Jaclyn A., Cassie Mead, Jamie Oslawski-Lopez & Rebecca K. Grady (2026): Division of Labor Over the Life Course: Structural or Symbolic Pressures? In: Journal of Marriage and Family, Jg. 88, H. 2, S. 425-441. DOI:10.1111/jomf.70023

Abstract

"Objective: Do structural or symbolic pressures, as measured by work-family transitions, play a greater role in determining the gendered division of household labor? Background: Scholars explain gendered divisions of household labor using structural (i.e., resource allocation; time availability) and symbolic explanations (i.e., gender as a social institution; doing gender). We concurrently tested these theories through the lens of major work–family transitions, which have been shown to impact household labor in previous research. Method: We used two nationally representative, longitudinal datasets: The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) to understand how work-family transitions impact male and female partners' household labor hours, as well as the proportion of housework performed by female partners. To do this, we used fixed effects models (PSID), lagged dependent variable models, and first difference change score models (NSFH). Results: We found that parenthood and work transitions, transitions that exert structural pressure, were associated with female partners' proportion of housework. On the other hand, the transition from cohabitation to marriage and relationship tenure, measures that are more symbolic in nature, did not significantly impact male or female partners' household labor. Conclusion: Overall, the structural pressures underlying work-family transitions appear to play a larger role in determining the division of household labor as compared to symbolic pressures." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Adams, Abi, Kotaro Hara, Kristy Milland & Chris Callison-Burch (2025): The Gender Wage Gap in an Online Labor Market: The Cost of Interruptions. In: The Review of Economics and Statistics, Jg. 107, H. 1, S. 55-64. DOI:10.1162/rest_a_01282

Abstract

"This paper analyzes gender differences in working patterns and wages on Amazon Mechanical Turk, a popular online labor platform. Using information on 2 million tasks, we find no gender differences in task selection nor experience. Nonetheless, women earn 20% less per hour on average. Gender differences in working patterns are a significant driver of this wage gap. Women are more likely to interrupt their working time on the platform with consequences for their task completion speed. A follow-up survey shows that the gender differences in working patterns and hourly wages are concentrated among workers with children." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © MIT Press Journals) ((en))

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Albanesi, Stefania (2025): Changing Business Cycles: The Role of Women's Employment. In: American Economic Journal. Macroeconomics, Jg. 17, H. 4, S. 345-390. DOI:10.1257/mac.20210138

Abstract

"Women's labor force participation in the United States rose rapidly until the mid-1990s when it flattened out. I examine the impact of this change in trend on aggregate business cycles with a quantitative model that incorporates gender differences. I show that the rise in women's participation played a substantial role in the Great Moderation and not allowing for gender differences leads to incorrect inference on its causes. The subsequent slowdown in women's participation played a substantial role in jobless recoveries and reduced aggregate hours and output growth in expansions, worsening aggregate economic performance in the United States." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Alon, Titan, Sena Coskun & Jane Olmstead‑Rumsey (2025): Gender Divergence in Sectors of Work. (IAB-Discussion Paper 11/2025), Nürnberg, 44 S. DOI:10.48720/IAB.DP.2511

Abstract

"Im letzten halben Jahrhundert kam es in vielen Bereichen des Arbeitsmarktes, darunter Arbeitszeit, Einkommen und Berufe, zu einer weitgehenden Annäherung der Geschlechter. Diese Studie zeigt jedoch, dass sich die Beschäftigungssektoren von Männern und Frauen im gleichen Zeitraum tatsächlich auseinanderentwickelt haben. Wir zerlegen den Anstieg der sektoralen Segregation in drei Faktoren: veränderte Präferenzen, Diskriminierung und Technologien. Veränderte Beschäftigungspräferenzen verheirateter Frauen sind der wichtigste Faktor und erklären 59% des Anstiegs der Segregation. Diese veränderten Präferenzen verringern auch die geschlechtsspezifische Einkommenslücke, da die von Frauen geschätzten nicht‑lohnbezogenen Annehmlichkeiten in höher bezahlten Sektoren zunehmend an Bedeutung gewinnen." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Bae, Hannah, Katherine Meckel & Maggie Shi (2025): Dependent insurance coverage and parental job lock: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act. In: Journal of Public Economics, Jg. 248. DOI:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105439

Abstract

"Coverage for dependents is a standard feature of employer-sponsored insurance. While prior work shows that employees trade off job mobility for their own coverage, less is known about the intra-family spillovers of dependent coverage on parental labor supply. We study this question using a large panel of employer-based insurance claims that links dependent enrollment to a proxy for parental job retention. We use a regression discontinuity design that exploits a sharp change in the duration of dependent eligibility by birth month under the Affordable Care Act. We find that additional dependent insurance eligibility increases both dependent take-up and parental job retention. This “job lock” effect is strongest among parents more likely to be on the margin of a job exit, for families that place higher value on dependent coverage, and employees of firms offering a broader range of insurance options." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 The Author(s).Published by Elsevier B.V.) ((en))

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Bahn, Dorothée, Christian Bredemeier & Falko Juessen (2025): Household chores, taxes, and the labor-supply elasticities of women and men. (Ruhr economic papers 1177), Essen, 46 S. DOI:10.4419/96973362

Abstract

"We study how the division of household chores and individual preferences contribute to gender differences in labor supply elasticities and examine the implications for optimal taxation. In a model of labor supply in dual-earner households, we show that elasticities and optimal income tax rates depend jointly on gender and the within-household allocation of chores. Using PSID data, we find that chore division substantially affects labor supply elasticities, whereas gender per se plays a smaller role. We then evaluate how well simple, feasible tax rules can approximate the optimal within-household tax structure. Gender-based taxation captures a sizable share of the potential efficiency gains, but gender-neutral rules with realistic levels of progressivity perform better." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Barnes, Spencer (2025): Within-firm job description wage gaps: The implications for financial performance. In: Australian journal of management, S. 1-31. DOI:10.1177/03128962251372865

Abstract

"We study within-firm and job-type wage gaps arising from words in job descriptions using a natural language processing technique (word2vec) on proprietary US job-level wage data from publicly traded companies spanning two decades. Analyzing nearly half a million job descriptions, we find that stereotypically feminine descriptions correspond to lower wages compared to masculine ones, as they require fewer years of experience and less education. At the firm level, wider job description wage gaps—where masculine descriptions earn more—are associated with higher firm value. A difference-in-differences design around Executive Order 13672 supports a plausibly causal interpretation, and the effect is strongest in politically sensitive firms. The wage premium for masculine descriptions is linked to a higher share of skilled jobs, greater productivity, and increased investment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Battaglia, Emily & Jessica H. Brown (2025): The labor market effects of pregnancy accommodation laws. In: Journal of Population Economics, Jg. 38, H. 4. DOI:10.1007/s00148-025-01141-z

Abstract

"Pregnancy accommodation laws require “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant workers, i.e., sitting down, lifting restrictions, and additional bathroom breaks. Although these laws may make it easier for women to remain employed during pregnancy, as a mandated benefit, they may also discourage employers from hiring employees who may become pregnant. We estimate the effect of pregnancy accommodation laws on labor market outcomes for women of childbearing age in order to determine whether these laws lead employers to discriminate against young women in hiring. Using a difference-in-differences design comparing women’s labor market outcomes across states throughout the staggered roll-out of thirteen state pregnancy accommodation laws from 2013 to 2016, we find no impact on female employment and wages. These null results are robust to a triple differences design that uses men’s labor market outcomes as an additional control. Subgroupanalyses of groups most likely to be affected, including those with less education, in more physically intense occupations, and married without children, also show no consistent impact of the new laws. These results suggest that this group-specific mandated benefit did not lead to discrimination in the labor market." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Batz-Barbarich, Cassondra, Nicole Strah & Farhan Masud Ahmed (2025): Do Words Matter? The Impact of Communal and Agentic Language on Women’s Application to Job Opportunities. In: Journal of Personnel Psychology, Jg. 24, H. 3, S. 135-147. DOI:10.1027/1866-5888/a000364

Abstract

": Communal and agentic goal affordances predict women’s perceived fit in and pursuit of work environments. However, an organization’s ability to influence women’s perceptions and pursuit of roles via language signals in job advertisements is unclear. This field study examines the impact of communal (vs. agentic) language in job advertisements ( N = 330 ads; 242 organizations) on attitudes and behaviors of actual job seekers. Results indicate that some agentic and communal cues influence behavior such that the former leads to a smaller proportion of female applicants, whereas the latter leads to a greater proportion. However, results became nonsignificant after controlling for industry gender representation. Our results explore the utility of experimentally explored interventions to determine their influence on real applicants’ behaviors." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 Hogrefe Verlag) ((en))

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Blau, Francine D. (2025): Gender Inequality in the Labor Market: Continuing Progress? In: ILR review, Jg. 78, H. 2, S. 275-303. DOI:10.1177/00197939241308844

Abstract

"This article examines the trends in women ’s economic outcomes in the United States, focusing primarily on labor force participation, occupational attainment, and the gender wage gap. Considerable progress was made on all dimensions prior to the 1990s followed by a slowing or stalling of gains thereafter, with a plateauing of female labor force participation trends and a slowing of women’s occupational and wage convergence with men. The author considers the likelihood that progress in narrowing gender gaps will resume in these areas, and concludes it is unlikely without policy intervention. She then considers new policy initiatives to address work–family issues and labor market discrimination that may help to increase female labor force participation and narrow gender inequities in the labor market." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bohnet, Iris, Oliver P. Hauser & Ariella S. Kristal (2025): Can gender and race dynamics in performance appraisals be disrupted? The case of social influence. In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Jg. 235. DOI:10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107032

Abstract

"We document gender and race dynamics in performance evaluations in a multi-national company, examining the impacts of a feature of the performance appraisal process: managers’ knowledge of employees’ self-evaluations. Generally, (White) women were rated higher than men and people of color were rated lower than White employees. Women of color gave themselves the lowest self-ratings. When self-evaluations were unavailable due to a quasi-exogenous shock, manager and self-ratings were less correlated. However, gender and race gaps remained unchanged as managers anchored on previous years’ ratings. Based onsuggestive evidence, women of color without an employment history benefitted from their self-ratings not being shared." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.) ((en))

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Checchi, Daniele, Daniel Kreisman & Cecilia García-Peñalosa (2025): The Evolution of Hours Worked and the Gender Wage Gap: Theory and Evidence from Four Countries. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 18265), Bonn, 36 S.

Abstract

"We consider the contribution of the intensive margin of labor supply (hours worked above zero) to the gender wage gap across four economies (Germany, France, US, UK) over a long time-horizon. We first build a model in which firms offer two wage contracts – one that pays a fixed wage but allows workers to choose their preferred number of hours up to “full time”, and a second in which wages are relative to imperfectly observable productivity but hours can be limitless. The former includes part- and full-time work, while the latter represents a class of workers who often must supply very long hours but who can then earn potentially unlimited remuneration. We then apply a Oaxaca decomposition for part-, full-, and over-time workers to observe the relative contribution of sorting and remuneration across these hours “regimes” over time and across countries. Through this, we show that while female employment in over-time work increased and the gender wage decreased, this was not driven by increasing selection but rather by a decrease in the unexplained portion of the wage gap over time. We conclude by considering the contribution of unions and labor market flexibility to these cross-country differences." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Conroy, Tessa, Jie Wu & Steven Deller (2025): Childcare availability and Women’s earnings in the U.S. In: Review of Economics of the Household. DOI:10.1007/s11150-025-09787-0

Abstract

"Extensive research shows that women earn less than men, and mothers earn less than women without children. In fact, the “motherhood penalty” accounts for much of the remaining gender wage gap. Since having children can reduce women’s earnings, access to childcare may play a crucial role in mitigating this effect and boosting women’s income. In this study we consider descriptive evidence of the relationship between childcare availability, defined geographically at the county level, and local women’s earnings. To account for potential spatial spillovers from childcare markets extending beyond county boundaries, we employ a spatial econometric model. This method is well suited for studying childcare markets which function regionally and their local economic effects, as well as for considering variation in this relationship by rurality. We find that in places with greater access to childcare, annual median women earnings are higher as is the ratio of female to male earnings. We also find evidence of interactions between neighboring places, highlighting the reality of cross-community childcare demand and need for regionally-informed childcare policies." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Corsten, Claire, Rebecca Daviddi & Jan Doering (2025): Empowered by Adversity? Exit, Voice, and Silence in the Aftermath of Gender Discrimination at Work. In: Gender & Society, Jg. 39, H. 3, S. 405-430. DOI:10.1177/08912432251326916

Abstract

"Social psychological research suggests that workplace discrimination harms women’s self-confidence and mental health, which may lead them to remain silent or quit their jobs after facing discrimination. However, feminist scholarship argues that discrimination can generate feminist consciousness and resistance. To interrogate these conflicting expectations, we draw on in-depth interviews with professional women to examine exit, voice, and silence in discrimination ’s aftermath. We find that some women remain silent or exit organizations in search of less hostile environments. Others, however, develop feminist consciousness, voice complaints, and sometimes accomplish hard-fought changes within their organizations. To explain these divergent responses, we identify support networks as a crucial mechanism. Support networks help women avoid self-blame and rumination by resolving the ambiguity that frequently obscures discrimination. Support networks also spread awareness of discrimination and generate feminist solidarity. In doing so, they encourage women to contest negative treatment by exercising voice. Implications for the study of workplace discrimination, the debate over the stalled gender revolution, and occupational segregation are discussed." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Coskun Dalgic, Sena (2025): Gender convergence in all areas: Is it a myth? In: IAB-Forum H. 29.08.2025, 2025-08-27. DOI:10.48720/IAB.FOO.20250829.02

Abstract

"While men and women are increasingly found in the same occupations, a surprising trend has emerged: Sectors are becoming more gender-segregated over time. Are these patterns shaped by discriminatory hiring practices or by individual preferences? Examining this question offers new insights into the complex dynamics behind gendered labour market outcomes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Coskun Dalgic, Sena & Gonul Sengul (2025): Unpacking the Link between Service Sector and Female Employment: Cross-Country Evidence. (IAB-Discussion Paper 08/2025), Nürnberg, 25 S. DOI:10.48720/IAB.DP.2508

Abstract

"Der starke Anstieg der Erwerbsbeteiligung von Frauen war in den letzten Jahrzehnten ein bestimmendes Merkmal der hochentwickelten Volkswirtschaften. Dieses Papier untersucht die länderübergreifenden Unterschiede im Zusammenhang zwischen der Expansion des Dienstleistungssektors und der Beschäftigung von Frauen in Europa und den USA. Wir schätzen die Elastizität der Frauenbeschäftigung im Verhältnis zur Beschäftigung im Dienstleistungssektor und decken erhebliche Unterschiede zwischen den Ländern hinsichtlich der Stärke auf, mit der der weibliche Anteil an den Arbeitsstunden auf die Expansion des Dienstleistungssektors reagiert. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass diese Elastizität in Ländern mit einem stärkeren Strukturwandel und einer höheren weiblichen Beschäftigungsintensität im Unternehmensdienstleistungssektor höher ist. Darüber hinaus ist eine höhere weibliche Beschäftigungsintensität im Unternehmensdienstleistungssektor mit einem größeren Lebensmittel- und Beherbergungssektor verbunden. Diese Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass Länder mit einer stärkeren Umverteilung von der Industrie zum Dienstleistungssektor einen stärkeren Anstieg der weiblichen Beschäftigung erlebten, da ihr expandierender Unternehmensdienstleistungssektor zusätzliches Wachstum im Lebensmittel- und Beherbergungssektor erzeugte und Frauen dadurch stärker in die Erwerbsarbeit zog." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Cuevas-Ruiz, Pilar, José Ignacio Giménez-Nadal, Sveva Manfredi & Almudena Sevilla (2025): A new model of parental time investments: A paradigm shift for addressing gender inequality in the labor market. (CEP discussion paper / Centre for Economic Performance 2126), London, 38 S.

Abstract

"This paper introduces a new framework for understanding the persistence of the motherhood penalty by emphasizing the role of on-call care. Using a pseudo-panel event study based on the 2003-2022 American Time Use Survey (ATUS), we quantify how different types of parental care time contribute to post-childbirth labor market outcomes. Our results show that gender gaps in on-call care, not primary childcare, drive the long-term reduction in mothers' Paid work. In the first two years after birth, declines in paid work are largely explained by primary interactive childcare. Over time, however, on-call care becomes the dominant factor. This shift is not accounted for in existing labor market models, nor in standard policies such as parental leave and childcare subsidies. We argue that the persistent economic costs of gender inequality can be better understood and addressed by integrating the temporal and unpredictable nature of caregiving into economic theory and policy design." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Daiger von Gleichen, Rosa (2025): Employer-provided childcare across the 50 United States: the normative importance of public childcare and female leadership. In: Journal of Social Policy, Jg. 54, H. 2, S. 574-594. DOI:10.1017/S0047279423000491

Abstract

"Employer family policy tends to be conceived as employers’ response to economic pressures, with the relevance of normative factors given comparatively little weight. This study questions this status quo, examining the normative relevance of public childcare and female leadership to employer childcare. Logistic regression analyses are performed on data from the 2016 National Study of Employers (NSE), a representative study of private sector employers in the United States. The findings show that public childcare is relevant for those forms of employer childcare more plausibly explained as the result of employers’ normative as opposed to economic considerations. The findings further suggest that female leaders are highly relevant for employer childcare, but that this significance differs depending on whether the form of employer childcare is more likely of economic versus normative importance to employers. The study provides an empirical contribution in that it is the first to use representative data of the United States to examine the relevance of state-level public childcare and female leadership. Its theoretical contribution is to show that normative explanations for employer childcare provision are likely underestimated in U.S. employer family policy research." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dressel, Joanna, Paul Attewell, Liza Reisel & Kjersti Misje Østbakken (2025): Characteristics or Returns: Understanding Gender Pay Inequality among College Graduates in the USA. In: Work, Employment and Society, Jg. 39, H. 1, S. 185-201. DOI:10.1177/09500170241245329

Abstract

"Explanations for the persistent pay disparity between similarly qualified men and women vary between women’s different and devalued work characteristics and specific processes that result in unequal wage returns to the same characteristics. This article investigates how the gender wage gap is affected by gender differences in detailed work activities among full-time, year-round, college-graduate workers in the US using decomposition analysis in the National Survey of College Graduates. Differences in men’s and women’s characteristics account for a majority of the gender wage gap. Additionally, men and women receive different returns to several characteristics: occupational composition, marriage and work activities. While men are penalized more than women for having teaching as their primary work activity, women receive lower rewards for primary work activities such as finance and computer programming. The findings suggest that even with men and women becoming more similar on several characteristics, unequal returns to those characteristics will stall progress towards equality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Filippo, Isabella Di, Bruno Escobar & Juan Facal (2025): Remote Work and Women's Labor Supply: The New Gender Division at Home. (arXiv papers), 67 S.

Abstract

"We study how increases in remote work opportunities for men affect their spouses' labor supply. Exploiting variation in the change in work-from-home (WFH) exposure across occupations before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that women whose husbands experienced larger WFH increases are over 2 percentage points more likely to be employed, equivalent to a 4% rise relative to pre-pandemic levels. Evidence from time-use diaries and childcare questionnaires suggests these effects are driven by intra-household reallocation of child-caring time: women are less likely to engage in primary childcare activities, while men working at home partially compensate by covering more for their spouse. These results highlight the role of intra-household spillovers and bargaining in shaping the labor market consequences of remote work." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hancock, Kyle, Jeanne Lafortune & Corinne Low (2025): Winning the Bread and Baking it Too: Gendered Frictions in the Allocation of Home Production. (NBER working paper / National Bureau of Economic Research 33393), Cambridge, Mass, 66 S.

Abstract

"We document that female breadwinners do more home production than their male partners, driven by “housework” like cooking and cleaning. By comparing to same sex couples, we highlight that specialization within heterosexual households does not appear to be “gender neutral ” even after accounting for average earnings differences. One possible explanation would be a large comparative advantage in housework by women, a supposition commonly used to match aggregate labor supply statistics. Using a model, we show that while comparative advantage can match some stylized facts about how couples divide housework, it fails to match others, particularly that men's housework time is inelastic to relative household wages. Matching these facts requires some gendered wedge between the opportunity cost of housework time and its assignment within the household. We then turn to the implications for household formation. Gendered rigidities in the allocation of household tasks result in lower surplus for couples where women out-earn men than vice versa, providing a micro-founded reason for substantial literature showing that lower relative earning by men decreases marriage rates. We show that our mechanism —allocation of housework, rather than norms about earnings—plays a role by relating marriage rates to the ratio of home production time in US immigrants' countries of origin." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hart, Chloe Grace (2025): Tensions of Making Women's Marginalization Salient in Men-Dominated Workplaces. In: Work and occupations, Jg. 52, H. 3, S. 358-387. DOI:10.1177/07308884241268704

Abstract

"Why might women who experience gender-based bias and harassment at work shy away from efforts to address gender inequality in their workplaces? Drawing on data from 52 interviews with women working in the Silicon Valley tech industry, I show that efforts to address women's marginalization in the men-dominated tech industry are complicated by the inscription of negative, gender essentialist stereotypes about women into narratives about why such initiatives are necessary. Interviewees voiced two rationales for not explicitly challenging women's marginalization. First, some women—particularly those whose race/ethnicity and age were typical of Silicon Valley tech workers—articulated a concern that such efforts may be interpreted as evidence that women are fundamentally different from, and deficient relative to, men. Second, women across race/ethnicity and age conveyed the concern that such efforts frame women as disempowered victims lacking agency. Both concerns represent a double bind: ignoring the marginalization that women face maintains a status quo rife with gender bias, but seeking to address it risks further entrenching negative stereotypes about women. These results illustrate both the durable nature of the gender status hierarchy and the unique ways that women of different intersecting identities confront it." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ishizuka, Patrick (2025): Parental self-evaluations by gender and social class: Shared parenting ideals, male breadwinner norms, and mothers’ higher evaluation standards. In: Social science research, Jg. 128. DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103156

Abstract

"Cultural norms that define “good” parenting are central to sociological explanations of gender inequality among parents and social class differences in parental investments in children. Yet, little is known about how mothers and fathers of different social classes evaluate their success as parents and what predicts those assessments. Using data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this study examines how caregiving and breadwinning are tied to parents’ self-evaluations by genderand social class. Results show that intensive parenting activities and full-time employment strongly predict more positive self-evaluations for mothers and fathers, reflecting gender symmetry in core cultural expectations of parents. However, earnings, homeownership, and overwork positively predict self-evaluations for fathers only, and mothers evaluate themselves more negatively than fathers at the same level of involvement and financial provision. Finally, intensive parenting activities similarly positively predict self-evaluations for more- and less-educated parents. Findings highlight challenges to meeting cultural expectations of modern parenthood, particularly for mothers and economically disadvantaged parents." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 The Author. Published byElsevier Inc.) ((en))

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Kattan, Lamis & Joanne Haddad (2025): Female-Specific Labor Regulation and Employment: Historical Evidence from the United States. In: Journal of labor economics, S. 1-67. DOI:10.1086/736151

Abstract

"We examine the causal impact of three unexplored female-specific Labor regulation: seating, health and safety and night-work regulations, on female gainful employment. Our findings indicate that laws regulating working conditions and restricting night-work increased female employment by 4% to 8%. Heterogeneous effects reveal that younger and married women without children witnessed the largest increase in employment. Additionally, native,higher-class and educated women were incentivized to join the workforce. The affected categories of women suggest that these regulations played a crucialrole in altering societal norms and women’s attitudes and incentives towards employment, leading to an increase in female labor supply." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Killewald, Alexandra & Nino José Cricco (2025): Can fertility decline help explain gender pay convergence? In: Social forces, Jg. 103, H. 4, S. 1329-1349. DOI:10.1093/sf/soae153

Abstract

"Prior scholarship demonstrates that motherhood wage penalties and fatherhood wage premiums contribute to the gender pay gap. These analyses typically take a cross-sectional perspective, asking to what extent gender inequalities in the association between parenthood and wages can explain gender pay inequality for a given cohort or at a given moment in time. By contrast, explorations of gender pay convergence over time have tended to start at the firm’s door, testing the explanatory power of changes in men’s and women’s human capital and job characteristics and neglecting the contributions of fertility change. We bring these two strands of research together, asking to what extent declines 1980–2018 in US employees’ number of children can explain gender pay convergence over the same period. Using a descriptive decomposition and data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we show that, in gross terms, fertility decline can explain almost one-quarter of gender pay convergence from 1980 to 2018. Even net of a host of controls for human capital and job characteristics, fertility decline explains 8 percent of the attenuation of the US gender pay gap 1980–2018—about half as much as changes in education and about a quarter as much as changes in full-time work experience and job tenure combined. Finally, we show that employees’ fertility decline was fastest in the 1980s and subsequently slowed; this, in conjunction with persistent gender differences in parenthood–wage associations, helps explain stalled progress toward gender pay parity." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kim, Andrew Taeho & ChangHwan Kim (2025): Double disadvantage of Black, Hispanic, and Asian American women in earnings, revisited. In: Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Jg. 96. DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101018

Abstract

"Prior literature suggests that women of color experience unique disadvantages as women and as racial minorities. However, empirical studies that hypothesize an additional disadvantage for women of color in personal earnings have not found supporting evidence. This study explores the family contexts and the local labor market conditions by which double disadvantage is mitigated. Using the 2015–2019 American Community Survey, we uncover a paradoxical pattern that the stronger the power of race in accounting for earnings inequality among men in a local labor market, the weaker double disadvantage married women of color experience. The relative performances of women of color compared to White women in terms of personal earnings, annual work hours, and hourly earnings are positively associated with the strength of race in explaining earnings inequality among men across local labor markets. No such paradoxical patterns are persistently evident among cohabiting or single women. The implications of these findings are discussed." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.) ((en))

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Kuo, Mei-Yu & Vincent J. Roscigno (2025): Labor force attachment, college majors, and the gender earnings gap. In: Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Jg. 100. DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101107

Abstract

"Workplace stratification research has been clear regarding ongoing earnings inequalities by gender and how both family dynamics and long-term employment may be playing a role. Gender gaps in both earnings and labor force integration, however, may also be partially shaped by divergences in post-secondary educational backgrounds. In this article, we draw on NLSY97 data and interrogate gender wage inequalities among college educated individuals in the U.S., how they may be tied to distinct fields of study, and the implications especially for labor force attachment and detachment over time. Results show clear divergences and significant contemporary baccalaureate underrepresentation of women in STEM fields—i.e., fields where eventual labor force attachment and wages tend to be highest. Although well-represented among non-STEM degree holders, women’s wage returns to these degrees are depressed relative to their male counterparts; a pattern partly tied to women’s concentration in “applied” fields of study that tend to lead to care-centered forms of employment. Further analyses show how observable earnings gaps across majors are partly a consequence of differences in labor force attachment across time; and that earnings benefits associated with labor force attachment are nearly double for men than for women. We conclude by discussing the stratified gender pipeline in educational pathways, its implications for employment integration and, consequently, ongoing earnings gaps." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.) ((en))

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Larsen Gibby, Ashley, Jocelyn Wikle & Cambria Siddoway (2025): Maternal labor supply among fully biological, fully adoptive, and mixed biological/adoptive mothers. In: Community, work & family, S. 1-22. DOI:10.1080/13668803.2025.2504910

Abstract

"Research in Western Europe shows that adoptive and non-adoptive mothers do not differ dramatically in earnings, supporting the conclusion that biology is not a strong explanation for the wage gap between mothers and fathers. We expand on this conclusion by examining these trends in the United States and considering two new explanations of why adoptive and non-adoptive mothers may differ: socioeconomic inequalities and commitment to the labor market. We consider differences between fully biological mothers (n = 269,930), fully adoptive mothers (n = 3,865), and mothers with both biological and adopted children (mixed biological/adoptive, n = 1,712) using the United States Current Population Survey (CPS) from 2007 to 2018. Regression results show that fully adoptive mothers were least likely, and fully biological mothers were most likely, to be employed. There were no significant differences in usual work hours across these groups. Moderation results show that adoption was not a consistent predictor of labor supply among those with young children or high levels of education. Our results are exploratory and suggest that adoptive mothers are socioeconomically advantaged, possibly reducing their need to work. Further, our moderation results challenge the idea that adoptive mothers have weaker ties to the labor market." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Li, Anita (2025): Is It Daddy Time Yet? Trends and Variation in Men's Employment Hours Around Childbirth: 1989–2020. In: Demography, Jg. 62, H. 4, S. 1319-1339. DOI:10.1215/00703370-12157124

Abstract

"Scholars continue to debate the progress of the gender revolution. Some argue that the gender revolution is stalled, whereas others see an emerging second half marked by men's increased involvement in the home. Using longitudinally linked monthly data from the 1989–2020 Current Population Survey, I show that U.S. fathers from more recent cohorts worked fewer hours around the time of a childbirth than earlier cohorts—evidence consistent with the second half of the gender revolution. The magnitude of change is modest but is larger among college-educated men, men with a college-educated partner, and men in dual-earner households. Changes across cohorts are entirely accounted for by men's increasing reports of parental leave usage. Findings shed light on the changing relationship between parenthood and work for men and suggest continued steps toward gender equality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Liepmann, Hannah & Ariane Hegewisch (2025): Revisiting Occupational Segregation and the Valuation of Women's Work. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 18291), Bonn, 45 S.

Abstract

"While population ageing increases the demand for care work, new technologies, including AI, reinforce the importance of human interaction, with recent research finding significant wage premiums for social skills. Against this background, we investigate two factors behind the gender wage gap: occupational gender segregation and lower pay in female-dominated occupations, especially care work, where social skills are central. Using 1972-2024 CPS data, we show that occupational gender segregation remains pronounced in the United States, with many care occupations remaining female-dominated. This continues to correlate with lower wages. Conditional on observable characteristics, a 1 percentage point increase in the occupational share of women during 2015-24 was associated with a wage decrease of 0.22 percent for women and 0.20 percent for men. We then analyze whether returns to social skills are distorted in the care sector, where we hypothesize that the wage returns on workers' performance are lower due to the public-goods aspect of care work. Based on combined CPS and O*Net data, we investigate occupation-level skills returns for 2015-24. They are indeed insignificant for care workers but sizeable for business services workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Maclean, Joanna Catherine & Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia (2025): The Effects of State Paid Sick Leave Mandates on Parental Childcare Time. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 17786), Bonn, 75 S.

Abstract

"Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. lacks a federal paid sick leave policy. As a result, many workers must choose between losing earnings and attending to childcare responsibilities. To date, 17 states and the District of Columbia have adopted or announced paid sick leave mandates that provide up to seven days of paid leave per year that can be used for family responsibilities and healthcare. In this study, we estimate the effects of state paid sick leave mandates on parents' time spent providing childcare using time diaries from the 2004–2023 American Time Use Survey. Findings from difference-in-differences estimators suggest that post-mandate, parental time spent providing childcare increases by 5.8%. Effects are stronger among women with younger children. Overall, our findings suggest that paid sick leave mandates allow parents to better balance work and family responsibilities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))