If you are a new mum returning to work, you might have worried about how you being absent to care for your baby will have impacted things back at the office.
And rightly so, it would seem.
In fact, according to a major new study, women can receive a third less salary per hour after their first pregnancy, with many loosing out for as long as 12 years after becoming mothers.
The research, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, found that once women start a family, the gender pay gap grows to the point where they receive up to a third less per hour than male counterparts. Meaning that while the overall gender wage gap has narrowed, women with children are falling further behind.
This is partly because women who work part-time miss out on promotions, the Institute for Fiscal Studies report said, who found that on average, women in paid work receive about 18 per cent less per hour than men.
According to the report, this is not because women see an immediate cut in hourly pay when they reduce their hours, but because mothers who work part-time lose out on subsequent wage progression. And women who take a break from work miss out on wage growth when they return. In fact, by the time their first child is 20, women have on average been in a job for four years less than men.
Alarmingly, the report found the closing of the overall wage gap was down to improvements in the pay rates of women who did not have A-levels or other higher qualifications. For better-educated women, however, the gap had remained unchanged for 20 years.
Let’s just take a moment and remind ourselves that this is 2016, people. 2016.
Co-author of the report, IFS director Robert Joyce, said: ‘Women in jobs involving fewer hours of work have particularly low hourly wages, and this is because of poor pay progression, not because they take an immediate pay cut when switching away from full-time work.”
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady was even harsher in his critique of the current state of things. This is what he had to say to the Daily Mail about the report:
“It is scandalous that millions of women still suffer a motherhood pay penalty. Without more well-paid, part-time jobs and affordable childcare, the gender pay gap will take decades to close. We need to see a step change in government policy and employer attitudes.”
Basically what this report is saying, is that in 2016, women are still being penalized for wanting to have both a family and their careers.
Did your career and income suffer once you had children? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @Herfamilydotie
