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In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Jessica Grose explores the responses to a Times survey of nearly 2,000 mothers discussing their journey with parenthood. The resounding theme was the “motherhood penalty,” where women receive decreased earnings and job prospects after becoming parents. Conversely, men receive a “fatherhood premium” where they earn more than their childless counterparts and have increased job prospects. According to analysis of Census Bureau data, this mother-father pay gap was about 35% in 2024, and could lead to an estimated $400,000 difference over a career. Respondents from the Times survey echoed this data, expressing frustration at limited career prospects, retirement savings, and income.
If we are worried about a declining birth rate and we know our economy depends on people having kids–how do we fix this? How do we stop penalizing mothers for having children and encourage people to start families? How do we encourage not just family survival but family flourishing?
The Center for the American Family is working to promote family-forward policies that bring economic and family policy into the 21st century. These policies acknowledge the work that goes into creating and supporting families and invests in families so they can thrive–both as a unit and as individuals within those families.
We are calling for a cultural reckoning on the family and the critical role it provides our economy: The Family is the origin and engine of the American Economy. American workers, our greatest asset, all grow up in some form of family. The success of the economy is tethered to the success of the American family.
So…what if valued the family as the critical industry it is? Perhaps if we looked at the family like we do industries in need of a stimulus…
- We may start with the following set of basic understandings:
- Parenting is a job. The labor that goes into raising children–housing, training, education, love, care–is real work. Just because someone may enjoy the work and/or perform its functions without compensation, does not make it any less of a job.
- Quality parenting demands a set of skills that must be learned. While the love for a child may be innate, the skills required to be an effective parent are not. Just ask any first-time parent.
- Parenting is a high-value, demanding job. We have yet to find a perfect substitute for caring parents, yet there is no other job that demands the same level of time and effort, around the clock, during all seasons, without any breaks. And the stakes could not be higher.
- Caregivers are essential workers. The saying “it takes a village to raise a child” highlights the shortcomings of even the best parent–no one can be “on” all the time. All parents need help at some point. But when it comes to caring for the next generation, we consistently underpay and undervalue those who work in caregiving.
- We may change how we design and implement family policy:
- Public and Private Investment: Compensating parents and caregivers by aligning economic incentives to encourage not just birth, but the essentials of raising children, including:
- Employer child care benefits
- Expanding the Child Tax Credit
- Earning Social Security benefits for parents who stay at home
- Paying living wages to caregivers
- Workforce Development: Education, training, and rewards for becoming a parent or caregiver and growing into a better one. While specific requirements vary by state, foster parents are federally required to be trained before children can come into their care. Beyond training, the process for becoming a foster parent or adoptive parent can be quite rigorous. While there are no requirements for parenting one’s natural born children (and we are certainly not advocating for that) becoming a parent can feel incredibly overwhelming. Built-in support that may exist around prenatal visits and giving birth in a hospital dramatically drops off once the child comes home, while newborn children and their mothers are at their most vulnerable and isolated. Training and educating about the labor (within and in support of families) around child-rearing, particularly for those under 5, should be recognized as continuing professional education under personal development.
- Infrastructure: Building family-forward cities, towns, and communities that provide parents and caregivers options to navigate life with a family like child care centers, playgrounds, and accessible transportation. What would communities that prioritize children’s development look like? One example is the Van Leer Foundation’s Urban95 initiative, which challenges urban planners to consider children and their caregivers in their designs. Urban95’s critical question: If you could experience your city from 95cm — the height of a 3-year-old — what would you change? By challenging community developers to view infrastructure from the lens of babies, toddlers, and their caregivers, we begin to see how place can influence families and that we can design spaces to facilitate caregiving and child development.
It is only by acknowledging the family as a center of industry that we families and caregiving will be valued in the market and in our society. As a driver of our economy, investment in the family and its labor is the only way to ensure our economy will continue to grow and thrive.
Sources
Grose, Jessica. Opinion | Times Readers Open up about the Real Cost of Motherhood – The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/opinion/motherhood-penalty-career.html. Accessed 30 June 2025.
Correll, S. J., Benard, S., & Paik, I. (2007). Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?1. American Journal of Sociology. https://doi.org/4493004
Gailey, Alex. “The motherhood penalty: Mothers earned 35 percent less than fathers in 2024.” Bankrate. 09 May 2025, https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/motherhood-penalty-study/.
Census Bureau 2024 Community Population Survey. US Census. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/data/tables.All.List_1020932829.html#list-tab-List_1020932829
Haspel, Elliot. “The Paradox of Stay-at-Home Parents.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 13 Feb. 2024, www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2024/02/stay-home-parents-support-working-parents-social-security/677400/.
Van Leer Foundation. Urban95. https://vanleerfoundation.org/urban95/