Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/315915 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
Upjohn Institute Working Paper No. 25-412
Publisher: 
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, MI
Abstract: 
We document the dynamics of career paths around parenthood, capturing worker advancement within firms and across firms with differing pay rates. Using a new linkage between administrative data on U.S. workers' fertility and labor market histories, we show that the parental earnings gap is partly explained by mothers transitioning to lower-paying firms. Firm downgrading is driven by parents who take an extended absence from the labor force. Mothers who move to lower-paying firms see improved job amenities but less generous fringe benefits. The firm's contribution to the parental earnings gap rises over time and reaches one-third by the child's 11th birthday.
Subjects: 
Parental earnings gap
employer-employee
fertility
lower-paying firms
reallocation
JEL: 
J13
J16
J22
J31
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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