Dorota Witkowska

University of Lodz,

Lodz, Poland

E-mail: dorota.witkowska@uni.lodz.pl

Motherhood and eldercare penalties. Evidence from Poland

Krzysztof Kompa

University of Johannesburg, College of Business and Economics,

Johannesburg, South Africa

E-mail: kkompa@uj.ac.za 

Abstract. Care providers face many constraints which limit their ability to compete on labor market. Therefore, they either give up their jobs, or limit their work time, or they look for a caregiver’s friendly job which usually assumes low wages. The negative effect of providing care on caregiver’s wages is called care penalty. In developed countries, with relatively high percentage of female employees and population aged 65 and above, governments formulate a social policy which is to help individuals and households providing care, and to keep labor force supply on a certain level. The solutions essentially differ among states. This study aims to find out the evidence of care penalty among Polish employees. Investigation is provided applying econometric analysis using the microdata originated from the Polish Labour Force Survey. The presented research proves that motherhood and eldercare penalties exist in Poland and mostly women are penalized. This is evidenced by the negative and significant impact of the variables describing the number of unemployed children and elderly persons on monthly salaries and working hours in the models estimated for female employees, and the insignificant influence of these variables in the models estimated for male employees.

Received: November, 2019

1st Revision: May, 2020

Accepted: August, 2020

DOI: 10.14254/2071-789X.2020/13-3/1

JEL Classification: J16, J21, J31

Keywords: labor market, wages, worktime, motherhood penalty, eldercare penalty