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Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

Abstract

This paper investigates the motherhood penalty as well as the fatherhood bonus. The Motherhood penalty is a phenomenon by which women’s pay decreases once they become mothers. The fatherhood bonus refers to the advantages that working fathers get in terms of pay and perceived competence in comparison with working mothers and childless men. This study incorporates information on the effect a child has on a mother’s income verse that of a father’s, while also measuring how a woman’s income is affected after having a child comparatively to that of a childless woman’s. The results show that the income of Mother’s was higher than that of non-mothers, but more glaringly, results showed fathers making substantially more than mothers which could more accurately explain the gender wage gap.

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