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Title: The Cost of Parenthood: Unraveling the Effects of Sexual Orientation and Gender on Income

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2009

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Abstract: Objectives. Prior research has repeatedly shown that parenthood affects employment outcomes; mothers have, on average, lower wages and are less likely to be hired than childless women. Some research indicates that this effect of parenthood on employment outcomes is dependent on sexual orientation. In particular, lesbian mothers might be treated more like childless women by those making employment decisions. This article examines the degree to which the lesbian wage advantage can be explained by lesbians avoiding the motherhood wage penalty experienced by heterosexual women.Methods. Drawing on 2000 U.S. Census data, this issue is first explored via ordinary least squares regression equations that estimate the effect of having a child present in the household on income. The Blinder-Oaxaca method is then employed to decompose the earnings differential between heterosexual and gay individuals.Results. Results indicate that lesbians appear to experience a motherhood advantage that increases their wages by approximately 20 percent. Further, results support the notion that lesbians receive different returns to the presence of children in the household than do heterosexual women. Approximately 35 percent of the wage differential between lesbians and heterosexual women is attributable to differences in returns to child rearing.Conclusion. These findings have relevance for state and federal anti-discrimination laws and work/family policies, as they provide further insight into the role that gender, and gender-based assumptions, play in determining employment outcomes.Over the past decade, there has been a growing body of literature examining the effect of sexual orientation on wages. Certainly, this issue has been at the forefront of policy agendas, given that federal law currently does not protect employees against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Prior studies that have quantified earnings differences have yielded varying, and often conflicting, results. Most, however, have shown that gay men earn significantly less than heterosexual males, and that lesbians' earnings are more than, or approximately equal to, those of heterosexual females (Baumle, Compton, and Poston, 2009; Carpenter, 2004; Black et al., 2003b; Berg and Lien, 2002; Allegretto and Arthur, 2001; Klawitter and Flatt, 1998; Badgett, 1995).A number of explanations have been offered in response to the seemingly opposite manner in which sexual orientation affects income for men and women (Badgett, 1995, 2001; Berg and Lien, 2002). Although a wage penalty for gay men is, perhaps, attributable to discrimination, a wage advantage for lesbians is more difficult to explain. Some have suggested that lesbians experience a wage advantage over heterosexual women due to a relatively lower propensity to leave the workforce to raise children (Peplau and Fingerhut, 2004; Berg and Lien, 2002). On the other hand, the wage advantage could result if employers rely on group stereotypes suggesting that lesbians' work trajectories are

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Authors: Baumle, Amanda K.

Periodical (Full): Social Science Quarterly

Issue: 4

Volume: 90

Pages: 983-1002

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

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