motherhood penalty

The term comes from sociological research on gender and work — Michelle Budig and Paula England’s 2001 wage-penalty study¹ and Shelley Correll’s 2007 audit study² — and has been amplified by Lean In through the Women in the Workplace report series and the 50 Ways to Fight Bias program. The motherhood penalty is systemic, not personal. Correll’s experiments found that mothers were 79% less likely to be recommended for hire, 8.2 times less likely to be recommended for promotion, and offered an average of $11,000 less in starting salary than equally qualified women without children. Meanwhile, fathers — most often white, married, and highly educated — receive a “fatherhood bonus”: becoming a parent is read as a signal of greater commitment to work.

How does the motherhood penalty show up at work?

The motherhood penalty shows up at work in subtle, often unspoken ways. Here’s what it can look like.

Fewer opportunities. It starts in hiring, where assumptions about commitment shape who gets a callback. Once a mother is hired, she can expect…

Lower pay. Mothers are offered an average of $11,000 less in starting salary than equally qualified non-mothers. Then there’s the compounding issue: mothers are often passed over for promotions (which typically come with pay bumps) because of assumptions about their priorities. Working mothers earn roughly 64 cents on the dollar compared to working fathers³.

Slower advancement. Correll’s data showed non-mothers were 8.2 times more likely than mothers to be recommended for a promotion. False assumptions about dedication and availability are the biggest roadblocks.

Overlooked for stretch assignments. Stretch assignments — projects beyond an employee’s current scope that help team members learn and grow — go more often to men, who are more likely to be sponsored for high-visibility opportunities and offered them without having to ask. Mothers are frequently passed over because of assumptions about their commitment, not because of a difference in ambition.

What’s an example of a manager’s comment that shows the motherhood penalty?

• “Are you sure you’re ready to come back full-time?”
• “I didn’t think you’d want more responsibility with a baby at home.”
• “I don’t know how she does it; does she ever see her kids?”
• “Let’s give the project to Kevin; Mary has a lot on her plate at home.”
• “We need someone who can really commit to this role.”

When managers make decisions about a mother’s career without asking her, the motherhood bias is at work.

What does the data say?

The motherhood penalty is backed by decades of peer-reviewed research.

• Lean In and McKinsey & Company’s Women in the Workplace 2025 report found that for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 93 women were promoted — and the gap widens by race: 82 Asian women and Latinas, and 60 Black women, per 100 men⁴. In 2024, the number was 81 women per 100 men⁵, so the overall gap has narrowed slightly, but the broken rung persists.
• The “broken rung” was named by Lean In and McKinsey in the Women in the Workplace 2019 report⁶ to describe the first-step-to-manager promotion gap — the single biggest barrier women face on the path to leadership. Before Lean In identified it, discussion centered on the “glass ceiling”; it turns out that the first step, not the final one, is where women’s advancement stalls.
• The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2025, women earned nearly 84 cents for every dollar a man earned⁷.
• Correll’s audit study found mothers were 79% less likely to be recommended for hire, 8.2 times less likely to be recommended for promotion, and offered a starting salary $11,000 lower than their non-mother counterparts.
• Across full-time, year-round and part-time workers, mothers earn about 36% less than fathers. Put differently, fathers earn about 56% more than mothers.

How does the motherhood penalty connect to other biases?

The motherhood penalty intersects with several related forms of workplace bias.

• Caregiver bias. The assumption that people caring for children, sick family members, or aging parents are less committed to work.
• Likeability bias. A double bind popularized by Sheryl Sandberg in her 2013 book Lean In⁸: women seen as likable are read as less competent, and women seen as assertive are read as unlikable.
• The double shift. The idea that women do a disproportionate share of housework and caregiving in addition to paid work. The concept traces to Arlie Russell Hochschild’s 1989 book The Second Shift⁹; Lean In has extended the framing in its Women in the Workplace reports. Pew Research Center’s 2022–24 time-use data show women do nearly 50% more housework and caregiving each day than men¹⁰. In dual-career relationships where both partners are at senior levels, women are 4 times as likely as men to take on most or all of the household responsibilities¹¹.
• The broken rung. The data-backed promotion gap that keeps women from reaching their first managerial role. The glass ceiling — the invisible barrier to executive-level roles — is a downstream symptom of the broken rung.

Who is affected by the motherhood penalty?

The motherhood penalty affects mothers directly — but it also affects non-parent caregivers and even non-mothers. Women face the “maybe baby” bias — discrimination against childfree women of childbearing age because employers assume they might eventually become mothers and therefore become less committed to work.

Mothers who carry most of the caregiving load are penalized the hardest. Lean In’s 2020 Women in the Workplace research — conducted during the pandemic — found that working mothers were three times more likely than fathers to do most of the housework¹². Black, Latina, and single mothers were even more likely to handle all of it. This is the double shift at its sharpest.

Research also shows that low-income women pay the steepest motherhood penalty, while high-earning men receive the largest fatherhood bonus¹³.

What can individuals, managers, and companies do?

The motherhood penalty is part of a wider web of systemic barriers, but there are concrete actions that can help weaken it.

For mothers. Document your wins so they’re visible at review time. Build sponsors — senior leaders who will advocate for your advancement. State your schedule as a matter of fact; don’t apologize for being a parent.

For managers. Assign work on merit, not on assumptions about availability. Track promotion rates for parents. Measure output, not presence. Actively support career growth for working mothers.

For companies. Offer flexibility without stigma. Audit pay and promotion data. Offer equal parental leave. Foster a culture of open dialogue about caregiving responsibilities.

Frequently asked questions

Is the motherhood penalty real?

Yes. Peer-reviewed research has shown that mothers were 79% less likely to be recommended for hire, 8.2 times less likely to be recommended for promotion, and offered starting salaries $11,000 lower than their non-mother counterparts.

Does it affect fathers?

No — in fact, the opposite. Fathers often receive a “fatherhood bonus” and are paid more after becoming parents, especially if they are white, married, and highly educated.

What is the difference between the motherhood penalty and the gender pay gap?

The gender pay gap compares what women and men earn overall. The motherhood penalty is the specific loss of pay and opportunity that women face after they become mothers — and it’s one of the main drivers of the broader gender pay gap.

Is the motherhood penalty illegal?

There is no federal law in the United States that bans parent-based discrimination outright, but it is illegal to treat mothers worse than non-mothers because of sex-based assumptions.

How do I address it in a performance review or job interview?

In a performance review, come prepared with stats, wins, and positive feedback. Highlight your results and your ambition. In a job interview, express your career goals and interest in growing with the company. You are not required to share your parental status, and employers should not ask.

Notes

1. Michelle J. Budig and Paula England, “The Wage Penalty for Motherhood,” American Sociological Review 66, no. 2 (April 2001): 204–225, https://doi.org/10.2307/2657415. ↩︎
2. Shelley J. Correll, Stephen Benard, and In Paik, “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?,” American Journal of Sociology 112, no. 5 (March 2007): 1297–1339, https://doi.org/10.1086/511799. ↩︎
3. National Women’s Law Center, A Window into the Wage Gap: What’s Behind It and How to Close It (Washington, DC: National Women’s Law Center, February 2026), https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2026-Window-into-the-Wage-Gap-Factsheet.pdf. ↩︎
4. LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2025 (2025), https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/people%20and%20organizational%20performance/our%20insights/women%20in%20the%20workplace%202025/women-in-the-workplace-2025-feb2026update.pdf. ↩︎
5. LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2024 (2024), https://leanin.org/report/women-in-the-workplace/. ↩︎
6. LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2019 (2019), https://wiw-report.s3.amazonaws.com/Women_in_the_Workplace_2019.pdf. ↩︎
7. U.S. Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2025, Current Population Reports, P60-284 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Publishing Office, September 2026), https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2026/demo/p60-284.html. ↩︎
8. Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013). ↩︎
9. Arlie Russell Hochschild, with Anne Machung, The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home (New York: Viking, 1989). ↩︎
10. Carolina Aragão and Kiley Hurst, “How U.S. Men and Women Spend Their Time,” Pew Research Center, 2025, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/feature/how-do-u-s-men-and-women-spend-their-time/. ↩︎
11. LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2022 (2022), https://wiw-report.s3.amazonaws.com/Women_in_the_Workplace_2022.pdf. ↩︎
12. LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2020 (September 2020), https://wiw-report.s3.amazonaws.com/Women_in_the_Workplace_2020.pdf. ↩︎
13. Michelle J. Budig, The Fatherhood Bonus and the Motherhood Penalty: Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Pay (Washington, DC: Third Way, September 2014), https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-fatherhood-bonus-and-the-motherhood-penalty-parenthood-and-the-gender-gap-in-pay. ↩︎