Labor Market Consequences of Motherhood in France and Germany: First Results from a Cross-Country Comparative Project Using Employee Registry Data

Andreas Filser , Institute for Employment Research (IAB)
Pacal Achard , CREST - Center for Research in Economics and Statistics, Palaiseau Cedex
Corinna Frodermann, Institute for Employment Research
Dana Müller, Institute for Employment Research (IAB)
Sander Wagner , Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science

The transition to motherhood continues to be a crucial juncture for women’s employment, career opportunities, and wages in many industrialized countries, including Germany and France. While motherhood is associated with wage and career penalties in both countries, French and German family policy and labor market contexts differ in important aspects. In Germany, childcare became widely available only recently, mothers typically interrupt their employment for multiple years and work part-time long after childbirth. However, recent trends reveal increasing labor-market attachment among mothers following a 2007 parental leave reform. In contrast, the French context encourages a fast re-entry into employment and promotes full-time employment of mothers by providing childcare services. Nevertheless, French mothers increasingly seek part-time employment schemes to accommodate employment and care. Thus, the French and German models are converging. However, a register-based longitudinal comparison of mothers’ labor market participation and careers in both countries is lacking. Here, we present first results from a project harmonizing and and analyzing longitudinal employee registers to study the immediate and long-term consequences of motherhood on employment trajectories in France and Germany. Specifically, we analyze German SIAB and French DASDS data. Starting 1975, SIAB is a 2 percent random sample of all individuals in Germany who are employees, social welfare recipients, or registered as job seekers. DASDS contains all individuals born in October, covering about 8% of the French population from 1967 onwards. The long observation periods help us elucidate changes in employment trajectories over time in both countries against the background of institutional developments.

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 Presented in Session 16. Labour Market and Parenthood