Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP14982
Authors: Lena Hensvik; Ghazala Azmat; Olof Rosenqvist
Abstract: Following the arrival of the first child, women’s absence rates soar and become less predictable due to the greater frequency of their own sickness and the need to care for sick children. In this paper, we argue that this fall in presenteeism in the workplace hurts women’s wages, not only indirectly and gradually, through a slower accumulation of human capital, but also immediately, through a direct negative effect on productivity in unique jobs (i.e., jobs with low substitutability). Although both presenteeism and job uniqueness are highly rewarded, we document that women’s likelihood of holding jobs with low substitutability decreases substantially relative to men’s after the arrival of the first child. This gap persists over time, with important long-run wage implications. We highlight that the parenthood wage penalty for women could be reduced by organizing work in such a way that more employees have tasks that, at least in the short run, can be performed satisfactorily by other employees in the workplace.
Keywords: Work absence; Job substitutability; Gender wage inequality
JEL Codes: J16; J22
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Arrival of the first child (J13) | Increase in women's absence rates (J22) |
| Increase in women's absence rates (J22) | Negative impact on productivity in unique jobs (F66) |
| Negative impact on productivity in unique jobs (F66) | Decrease in women's wages (J31) |
| Arrival of the first child (J13) | Decrease in likelihood of women holding unique jobs (J79) |
| Decrease in likelihood of women holding unique jobs (J79) | Persistence of wage gap over time (J31) |
| Restructuring work to allow for more substitutable tasks (L23) | Mitigating wage penalty (J31) |
| Unique jobs (J44) | Higher wages (J39) |
| Unique jobs (J44) | Better employment stability (J63) |