Premium or Wage Gap for Fathers? The Impact of Parental Leave on Men's Wages in Spain.

Irene Lapuerta , Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA)
Marta Dominguez-Folgueras, CRIS
María José González, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

This paper investigates the impact of fatherhood on earnings in Spain using data from 2005 to 2021. While much research exists on how motherhood affects income, the influence of fatherhood, especially in Spain, is less explored. In some countries, fathers experience a "fatherhood bonus," attributed to gender role specialization, employer preferences for male workers, and self-selection into parenthood. This study aims to assess the impact of fatherhood on men's earnings, focusing on occupational categories, family structure and the use of longer-term parental leave. Three key hypotheses are tested. Firstly, the fatherhood bonus is expected to be more pronounced in higher occupational strata. Secondly, it is expected to be greater in heterosexual partnerships due to gender specialization. Thirdly, we expect the use of parental leave will penalize men’s wages due to the low commitment stigma. The study uses data from the Continuous Sample of Working Lives, a survey of individuals from the Spanish social security system. Unconditional quantile regression on longitudinal data is used to estimate earnings differences between men with and without children. Fixed effects techniques are employed to account for self-selection into fatherhood.

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 Presented in Session 103. Parental Leave