New ONS data reveals the extent of the financial ‘motherhood penalty’, whereby mothers face a dramatic and lasting loss in earnings after having children.
Key findings
- In the five years after childbirth, mothers lose: £65,618 after their first child, £26,317 after their second child, and £32,456 after their third child.
2. Five years after the birth of a first child, mothers’ monthly earnings are on average 42% lower (£1,051 per month) than in the year before birth.
3. The probability of paid employment is significantly reduced for five years after the birth of a first child, compared with one year before birth, with a peak reduction of 15.0 percentage points one and a half years after birth.
The study used anonymised NHS, HMRC and census data from 2014 to 2022.
Responding to the findings, Vaila McClure, Head of External Affairs at Gingerbread, the charity for single-parent families, said:
“This is a prime example of how the world of work doesn’t work for mums – and particularly single mums. 90% of single parents are women and the majority are working. This lost income is likely to be a key driver of the poverty that hits 43% of children in single parent households.”
Alice Martin, of Lancaster University’s thinktank the Work Foundation, told the Guardian these figures reflected the unfair reality for working mothers.
“Addressing the motherhood penalty requires bringing parental leave policies into the 21st century, ensuring both mothers and fathers get ample paid time off when they become parents – we should properly accommodate parenthood alongside work, not in spite of it,” she said.
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