Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35064 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 3662
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we assess the role of employment-based health insurance offers in explaining the motherhood wage gap. Researchers have been aware of the existence of a motherhood gap for many years; yet, the literature has failed to address the role of non-wage compensation in explaining the motherhood wage gap despite the increasing importance of non-wage benefits in total compensation packages. As hedonic wage theory suggests, mothers might view health benefits as desirable and trade-off wages for health insurance. Thus, lower wages for mothers might reflect their relative preferences for jobs offering health insurance. We estimate an endogenous switching wage equation model to account for the self-selection and, thus, endogeneity of having an employment-based health insurance offer. We find that, once the endogeneity of having an employment-based health insurance offer is accounted for, the motherhood wage gap disappears.
Subjects: 
Motherhood wage gap
non-wage compensation
health insurance
JEL: 
J01
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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