Working Mothers Penalised in the Workplace

Quick, hide the kids! If your boss knows you’re a working mum, you’re likely to be making less than your non-mom counterparts. A LOT less.

A new U.S. study found the wage disparity between mothers and non-breeders could be as much as $US11,000 for the same position (per year). Providing fake resumes to employers for two women – one with kids, one without – the researchers working on a study since dubbed “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” found moms were ranked as both “less competent” and “less committed.”

Considering even the better-paid childless women are still earning seventy-seven percent of what a working man earns in America, working mums are truly getting shafted.

But before you start cursing those kid haters in the office, researchers found the exact opposite held for fathers vying for jobs. Dads were considered a better catch for employers – perhaps because they’re seen to “need” and “want” the job more in order to provide for their kids.

So it isn’t about the kids. It’s about that age-old assumption that women just want to be home changing diapers and watching Oprah while they nap and Dads want to be the big, strong providin’ man.

Yawn. When are they going to get the picture that women who are working are doing it because they “want” and “need” to be there too? That we like putting food in our kids’ tummies as much as the next GUY? And that we have this little thing called a mortgage/rent that we are pretty sure we’d like to see paid this month… just like the guy?

Image: BabySigns

via Savvy Sugar