The motherhood wage penalty in the public and private sectors in Thailand, 2017

Abstract

Prior research has shown that the Motherhood Wage Penalty on mothers has led to mothers earning a lower monthly income than women without children in Thailand. This paper uses the Social Economic Survey (SES) of 2017 to study how the motherhood penalty affects women from different sectors. Using data of 9522 women from age 15 to 65 in the SES 2017, I find that the average motherhood wage penalty stood at 7.6 percent. The average penalty was 1.6 percent higher in the public sector versus the penalty in the private sector. Human Capital Theory explains the wage gap between mothers and non-mothers and the differing impacts of the motherhood penalty in both the public and private sectors.