Childless female academics earn more

Study: Children affect the salary

22/09/2012

According to a new study, children often have a career break for female academics, because full-time jobs and family appear to be difficult to reconcile in practice. The HIS Institute for Research on Higher Education (HIS-HF) examined the compatibility of work and family in the study. While women still take a back seat when they have children, there is little change among fathers.

Full-time employees Women with and without children earn about the same amount
The result of the HIS study is clear: on average, childless female academics earn more than those who are recruited. The graduates of the 1997 graduate class were interviewed at the University of Hannover, who provided information about their salary one year, five years and ten years after the exam. Ten years after graduation, respondents earn an average of € 50,478 gross per year. In women with children, the income is significantly reduced. Mothers earn on average only 30,882 gross per year. „The explanation is that many women work part-time“, reports the author of the study, Gesche Brandt. The comparison of full-time working women shows that women with and without children earn almost the same amount. While childless female academics earn an average of 54,112 euros a year, childless women come to 52,108 euros gross per year.

Of the surveyed graduates, 60 percent had children ten years after they graduated. According to the study, around half of the childless people would like to have offspring in the future. For 40 percent of childless female academics, the high standard of their job is the reason why they do not yet have any offspring. The study also shows that the likelihood of maternity decreases when the woman works full-time or in a leadership position.

Professionally, men do not change much for their own children
In contrast to women, men do not change much when they become fathers. Children even seem to have a positive influence on their salary. Male graduates with children earn an average of 68,179 euros per year ten years after graduation, while men without children earn only 64,154 on average. Part-time work is the exception for men.

For academics with children, the framework for the compatibility of work and family must be right, says the author. „These include, for example, coordinated childcare services, qualified part-time positions and the support of the partner.“ For the traditional gender division of labor is still common in many partnerships. „The male graduates succeed in reconciling their careers and career mainly because the partner takes over the family work. The partner's primary responsibility for childcare is still the exception“, Brandt continues.

„There are certainly mothers who succeed in reconciling child and career. They usually only get out of business for a short time and then work full-time again. Above all, continuous careers leave mothers with a university degree good job opportunities“, explains the author of the study funded by the Federal Ministry of Research. (Ag)