Key takeaways
- Full-time working mothers with children under 18 earned a median salary of $56,680, while their male counterparts earned $76,388 in 2024, according to Bankrate’s analysis of Census Bureau Current Population Survey (CPS) data. That’s a 35 percent pay gap, wider than 2023 and 2022.
- There appears to be no “penalty” for men when it comes to parenthood. Full-time working fathers with children under 18 make roughly 25 percent more than full-time male workers with no children under 18 per year: $76,388 vs. $61,308, respectively. It’s unclear in the CPS data why there doesn’t appear to be such a penalty, and other factors like age, experience and education may be playing a role.
- Women’s pay lags behind men’s, on average, long before women have children, and the pay gap typically grows when women get married and have children.
Since having her first child in 2015, certified public accountant Katie Thomas has repeatedly asked herself the same impossible question: career or family?
Following a layoff six months after having her first child, Thomas decided to start her own business because she needed more flexibility to juggle caregiving and her career. Three years later, her daughter slightly older, she decided to reenter the workforce to work full-time for one of her clients. The return wasn’t what it cracked out to be. Between 2019 and early 2023, she worked 70-plus hour weeks, all while welcoming her second child, leaving her burned out.
“I got tired of working so many hours to see my kids for maybe an hour a day,” Thomas says. “My husband and I evaluated, and we said it’s worth it for me to take a step back from what I’m doing and not work these crazy hours. That drove my decision in what I’m doing and where I’m working today.”
Millions of working mothers in the U.S. have long wrestled with the career versus family question and continue to do so today. With women disproportionately more likely than men to assume caregiving responsibilities and household labor, many feel they have no choice but to either take time out of the workforce, take a lower-paying job with more flexibility or reduce their hours after starting a family. Mothers’ earnings and career growth oftentimes suffer from these forced choices.
Experts call it the “motherhood penalty.”
A new Bankrate analysis of Census Bureau Current Population Survey (CPS) data reveals full-time working fathers earned 35 percent more in wages than mothers working full-time in 2024, a wider disparity than in 2023 and 2022 (31 percent and 32 percent, respectively).
If that gap doesn’t improve, full-time working mothers are on track to earn roughly $600,000 less than their male counterparts over the next 30 years, according to the study.
Over time, the compound effect of lower earnings can make it more challenging for working mothers – especially single mothers – to achieve important financial milestones, such as saving three to six months’ worth of expenses, putting enough away for retirement or buying a house.
We still have women doing a disproportionate amount of care work. As long as that’s going to continue to happen, and as long as there are perceptions that care work is women’s work, we are going to continue to see a motherhood penalty.
— Yana Rodgers, Faculty Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University
How much can the motherhood penalty cost women?
Using the latest data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, Bankrate analyzed the median annual earnings among seven groups of full-time working men and women to determine where pay gaps are the widest and analyze the financial impact of the motherhood penalty. We took into account mothers and fathers of various marital statuses, as well as men and women who don’t have children under 18 in their households.
Despite women making gains in higher education and the workplace, Bankrate’s Motherhood Penalty Study found that women’s earnings lose ground to men’s earnings throughout various phases of life, from the beginning of a career to marriage to motherhood.
A Pew Research analysis reveals women have made up the majority of the college-educated workforce since 2019. Additionally, women are the majority on college campuses and are attaining college degrees at higher rates, according to Pew Research.
The motherhood penalty is a significant contributor to the overall pay gap between men and women, financial experts said. Women working full-time earn 83 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn, according to Bankrate’s Gender Pay Gap Study. Bankrate’s Motherhood Penalty Study also found that the pay gap is narrower than the overall gender pay gap for single childless women and wider for mothers.
If you look at the [pay] gap between childless men and childless women, it’s [pay gap] still larger than it should be, but they’re pretty close together in terms of what their wages look like.
— Joy Misra
Provost sociology and public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Mothers and fathers have the widest pay gap
Among the groups that Bankrate analyzed, the pay gap is the widest between full-time working mothers and fathers. Full-time working moms earn 74 cents for every dollar a full-time working father earns.
That pay gap translates to roughly $1,600 a month or $19,700 per year for full-time working mothers with children under 18. Over a 30-year career, that’s a difference of more than $591,000 for mothers when compared to fathers (assuming the gap remains the same over time), according to the study.
Comparatively, full-time single and childless women earn 93 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts — the smallest pay gap among the groups analyzed. The median annual pay gap between mothers and fathers with children under 18 is more than five times larger than it is for single childless women and single childless men ($19,700 vs. $3,600, respectively).
The data indicates that women’s pay lags behind men’s on average long before women have children, and the pay gap typically grows when women get married and have children. Women start out earning less, but they’re closest to parity with men when they’re single with no children. Once women get married, the pay gap widens significantly to 79 cents on the dollar. When women have children, the pay gap grows even more to 74 cents on the dollar.
When I was starting out, I watched women have kids and they never progressed. The few women that I did see in top positions were often times single or didn’t have kids.
— Katie Thomas, CPA and mom of two based in Phoenix, Arizona
Single full-time working men with children under 18 and their female counterparts also have a significant pay gap among the groups analyzed (22 percent). In 2024, single working mothers with children under 18 earned $45,604, while fathers of that same category earned $55,588.
“Single women who have children also really need the income and don’t want to lose their jobs,” Misra says. “Unfortunately, the stereotypes that go along with it are that their attention is going to be split, and they’re going to be more focused on their children.”
Where does the motherhood penalty stem from?
Yara Rodgers, faculty director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, says the motherhood penalty most frequently comes from women taking on lower-paying jobs that offer more flexibility, part-time work or leaving the workforce altogether after becoming parents. But that flexibility can come at a cost.
“Why are they doing that? It’s mainly because we still have an uneven distribution of care work that’s being done in the home, where women do more care work than men,” she says. “Sometimes women exit the labor market completely.”
According to a 2020 AARP analysis, 3 in 5 caregivers are women (61 percent), and 2 in 5 are men (39 percent). Even when women earn the same or outearn their husbands, they still take on more household chores and caregiving responsibilities, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center analysis.
Working mothers with children under 18 are also significantly more likely than their male counterparts to say parenting (30 percent vs. 22 percent) and chores/household obligations (24 percent vs. 14 percent) negatively affect their mental health, at least occasionally, according to Bankrate’s 2025 Mental Health and Money Survey.
The fatherhood bonus
Comparatively, there appears to be no “penalty” on men’s earnings when it comes to parenthood. Bankrate’s study found that fathers working full-time earned more, on average, than men who do not have children. In 2024, fathers with children under 18 made 25 percent more in wages than men with no children under 18: $76,388 vs. $61,308, respectively. This gap can lead to a difference of more than $400,000 in wages between the two groups over 30 years (assuming earnings stay the same).
While it’s unclear in the data why there doesn’t appear to be a penalty for fathers, Misra’s theory based on her research is that it “boils down to longstanding social stereotypes about what men’s roles and what women’s roles are.”
“Men get a premium when they have children because employers think of them as super responsible because they want to be able to support their families,” she said.
Jim Borbely, a senior economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said age likely complicates these comparisons. Childless women and men tend to be younger and, therefore, have lower earnings because younger workers generally earn less than older workers.
Among the groups analyzed, the only instance where mothers earned more was the comparison between mothers with children under 18 and women without children under 18. In 2024, women with children under 18 earned a median salary of $56,680, while women without children under 18 earned $53,144 — a 7 percent gap
Still, the median earnings gap for fathers when compared to childless men is more than three times larger than it is for mothers when they are compared to their childless counterparts.
A further limitation in the data is that the absence of children under 18 for women and men does not necessarily imply that they have never had children. It could mean that they have children over 18 who are not part of their household.
Rodgers says that if the Current Population Survey was able to capture data on whether a woman ever had a child, we would likely see a much bigger difference in earnings between women with children and childless women.
Impact of the motherhood penalty on career progression
The motherhood penalty can impact a woman’s career growth, too. Recent research by professors at the Federal University of Uberlândia and Australian National University found mothers, more often than fathers, are passed up on promotions or choose to move into part-time or more flexible jobs that they’re overqualified for, to better balance their careers and caregiving. In turn, this can significantly dent their lifetime earnings and career advancement.
Sometimes (the motherhood penalty) comes from being passed over for promotions because of perceptions that they’re incapable, distracted or not as committed to their jobs.
— Yana Rodgers, faculty director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University
Thomas, a 39-year-old mom of two, says she could be leading a finance team at a large company with several people reporting to her at this point in her career. However, she intentionally took a new job in April that she was overqualified for — with a pay cut — because it was fully remote, offered flexible hours and had more family-friendly policies.
“I need a family-friendly company far more than I need progression in my career because right now, my kids are important to me, and I never anticipated prioritizing them over my career,” she says.
Alivia F, a 31-year-old new mom based in Louisiana, says she may leave the workforce once her son starts attending school in a few years because her work hours won’t align with his school hours.
“I might have to quit working temporarily or find a part-time job, unless I can find something more flexible with a school schedule, so I can be home and get him in the future,” she says.
4 money and career tips for working moms
If you’re feeling overwhelmed about your finances, it’s important to remember you’re not alone. Here are four steps CFP Betty Wang recommends working moms take to alleviate their financial stress and achieve financial security.
1. Assign a “job” to every dollar you earn
If you want to achieve financial security, start with the basics. That means having a spending plan and sticking to it. Many experts call it budgeting, but Wang reframes it as assigning every dollar you earn a “job.” She says some of the jobs are to pay bills, while another job could be to save for retirement or to pay for child care.
If you don’t know where to start, many financial experts recommend following the 50/30/20 budgeting rule. This strategy suggests splitting your budget into three categories: 50 percent for must-haves, 30 percent for wants and 20 percent for savings.
“I think you just have to be very mindful of where your dollars are going,” Wang says. “It’s prioritizing and unfortunately, there’s a trade-off. Slow and steady wins the race.”
2. Aim to save the percentage that’s matched in your 401k
401(k)s are a great place to save money for retirement, according to Wang. Nearly a quarter of women (26 percent) working full-time, part-time or looking for employment didn’t contribute to their retirement savings between August 2023 and 2024, compared to 16 percent of working men, according to Bankrate’s 2024 Retirement Savings Survey.
If you have access to a 401(k) plan and your employer offers a match, aim to save the matched percentage as that’s essentially “free” money on the table. From there, gradually increase your contributions until you can put roughly 15 percent of your income annually toward retirement.
“Let’s say they match 3 percent of what you contribute,” she says. “That’s another 3 percent your employer will be putting in.”
3. Have different savings funds for different purposes
If you have multiple savings goals, you should have multiple high-yield savings accounts for those goals.
Wang says she’s a “big proponent of having different funds for different purposes.” Whether it’s an emergency fund, a child care fund or a fun fund, she recommends intentionally separating your dollars across various savings accounts.
First, prioritize building three to six months’ worth of expenses in an emergency fund. Wang says an emergency fund is “paramount” for women so they’re not trapped in a job or taking on high-interest credit card debt they can’t pay off. For single parents, Wang recommends setting a goal of eight months’ worth of expenses. After establishing a solid emergency savings, shift your focus towards saving money for other financial goals.
“I know it’s hard to get to when you have a lot of competing priorities, but the reason is that I want the women to have a choice,” she says. “I don’t want them to take the first paying job out there because that leads to being unhappy, burned out and potentially having to change their job.”
4. Always negotiate your salary and benefits.
If there’s one way women can advocate for themselves in the workplace, it’s by asking for higher pay or additional work benefits. Wang says negotiating for higher pay or specific benefits can be intimidating, and even her most successful female clients struggle to ask for more money or flexibility. However, it’s the quickest way to ensure you start earning more or get access to additional benefits straight away.
“We all struggle with asking more because we don’t want to be the squeaky wheel,” she says.
She suggests starting with research to determine the salary range for your job title, level of experience and location. While doing research online is essential, consider also connecting with other professionals in your industry to better understand salary ranges. Keep your market research handy during the negotiation process, prioritize what you need and bring that to the negotiation table. It could result in a higher salary, signing bonus, working from home more or other work benefits.
“Most recruiters expect you to negotiate, and I think we as women fall down there because we just accept what’s given to us. I’ve just encouraged women to ask.”
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Bankrate analyzed median weekly earnings from the Census Bureau’s 2024 Community Population Survey to identify gaps among the following full-time working groups :
- Women without children under 18 vs. mothers with children under 18
- Mothers with children under 18 vs. fathers with children under 18
- Women without children under 18 vs. men without children under 18 (partnered and unpartnered)
- Single women without children under 18 vs. single men without children under 18
- Men without children under 18 vs. fathers with children under 18
- Single mothers with children under 18 vs. single fathers with children under 18
- Married women without children under 18 vs. married men without children under 18
All figures are in 2024 dollars, rounded to the nearest whole dollar. The analysis uses median weekly wages for all full-time wage and salary workers regardless of race or ethnicity, and self-employed people are excluded.
Unless specified, full-time working women and men with or without children under 18 could have any marital status (partnered or unpartnered). Full-time working mothers and fathers have at least one child under 18 at home. Women and men without children under 18 mean the householder does not have any children in the household under 18 and they may have older children who are not part of their household. In the analysis, “single” is defined as a person who’s never been married, is married but the spouse is absent in the household, separated, divorced or widowed.
Median annual earnings for all groups are derived by multiplying median weekly earnings by 52 weeks. Median hourly wages and cent per dollar figures for all groups are derived by dividing median weekly earnings by 40 hours, which assumes a full-time work week.
Read the full article here
