The motherhood penalty in Brazil

: wage differentials and mobility dynamics

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the motherhood penalty in Brazil and examines how job mobility affects wage growth differentials between women with and without children. Using detailed matched employer-employee data from Brazil, we conduct a difference-in-difference event study analysis and find that the arrival of children results in a long-term wage gap of 21% between mothers and their childless counterparts, a penalty which widens across time. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that while mothers and non-mothers exhibit similar rates of between-firm mobility, promotion rates are lower for mothers starting in the early 30s. This pattern, coupled with lower returns to mobility for mothers which decline with age, exacerbates the wage growth gap between mothers and non-mothers, highlighting the compounded impact of motherhood on career advancement and earnings.

Date of Award	14 Oct 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Joana Silva (Supervisor) & Anna Bernard (Supervisor)