‘Motherhood penalty’ costs women thousands of dollars each year
Forbes: Lack of flexibility has caused 52% of women to consider leaving their jobs
(InvestigateTV) — Bankrate looked at the Census Bureau’s current population survey and found mothers earned 31% less in wages than fathers in 2023.
Women reported an average median salary of around $55,000 while men reported an average of $72,000.
Bankrate analyst Alex Gailey found mothers’ earnings and career growth oftentimes suffer. Experts call it the “motherhood penalty.”
“That’s something that I consistently hear from working mothers, is that, you know, they want to continue progressing in their career,” Gailey said. “They want to continue growing there, and they don’t want to take a step back, but they kind of feel like they have to make a tough decision and ultimately, you know, women more likely are more likely to pick their families over their career.”
Gailey said there are things women can do to build wealth over time. It comes down to focusing on what can be controlled on an individual level.
“Automating your finances as much as possible will just allow you to build wealth over time without thinking too hard about it,” she advised. “So, automate your contributions to your high yield savings account, automate your contributions to your retirement account, just automate this stuff as much as possible. If you have maybe a budgeting app that you can just use that automatically filters in all of your data and how you’re spending and just does the work for you. These are things that just make your life easier.”
Gailey urged people to advocate for themselves at review time or when they’re looking for a new job. Don’t be afraid to negotiate.
She also recommended having a good support network, other working moms can help with brainstorming.
For those ready to negotiate, she said come to the table with research, data, and arguments. She said they should make their points very clear.
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