If the wage gap between men and women tend to be reduced in recent years, the perfect equality still seems a long way off. One of the major obstacles is found to be the maternity which penalizes the salary progression of women, particularly in the private sector. According to a study published on Tuesday by the national Institute of statistics (Insee), “the birth of a child coincides with a decline of wages among mothers but not among fathers”. And this trend intensified in the course of the career: “the pay gap between women and men increase significantly during the course of their life, and in particular when they have children”, also finds the study.
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Insee looked on the net wage schedule between 1995 and 2015, for employees aged 16 to 65 years of age working in companies of the private sector in metropolitan France. On this period, on average, women earn 18% less than men. Behind this percentage, hide strong disparities according to the age and especially the presence of children for women. If the wage gap between the sexes is maintained at all ages around 7% for employees without children, it is widening by an average 23% between fathers and mothers.
With the arrival of a child, the Insee observes a stall. The wages of mothers after the birth of a child decreased by an average of 2% to 3%. When one of the fathers, with equal skills in an enterprise, benefits from a slight increase (+3 %). The gap grows over time between fathers and mothers. Thus, mothers earn 11% less than the fathers in 25 years, but 25% less to 45 years of age.
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How to understand these widening income gaps with the arrival of a child? The choice of professionals due in large part to these differences. In order to reconcile family and professional life, mothers tend to favour companies that are more close to the family home, near places of custody, schools, and children’s activities, providing greater flexibility in working hours. As many of the conditions that allow them to reconcile professional and family lives, but reduce their margin of negotiation with the employers and their opportunities and salary”. “The law provides for equal pay between men and women, but it is observed that women are over-represented in firms that pay poorly their employees, and that these are companies close to home,” explains Elise Coudin, co-author of the study, as cited by AFP.
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These conditions of work more flexible, they are not necessarily offered by companies paying high wages, sometimes reluctant to hire or retain women after they have children,” according to the study. Insee also shows that working mothers, more than fathers, “in of the companies in which a larger share of employees is to be paid at the Minimum wage”, while fathers are more frequently in employment in companies that “pay the highest premiums”.
The women, and especially mothers, are also more often part-time, including the years following a birth. The mothers are also less likely to change employer, especially two years before and ten years after a birth, that is to say, in the periods where the men have strong career progression because they are more mobile. Finally, the outputs of the labour market of mothers of young children also have an impact on the evolution of wages.
