Family gap in pay and gender wage gap in Israel

Abstract

Over the past decades, empirical evidence has suggested the existence of a significant “family gap" in hourly pay, that is, pay differentials between mothers and other women. There also appears to be a relationship between the gender gap and the family gap: countries in which having children has a large negative impact on women s pay tend to exhibit a larger gender gap in pay as well. This study examines the family gap in Israel, for both women and men, with the aim of shedding light on the relation between it and the gender wage gap. It further examines the family gap in different economic sectors, based upon CBS census data, and describes changes between 1983 and 1995. The findings reveal a differential effect of family size on the returns to human capital (years of education and work experience) for men and women in Israel. Results also indicate that the gender wage gap increases with family size. The asymmetrical effect of family size on women versus men stems mainly from the positive effect of children on men's wages in some sectors. The study also found that the family gap for women in Israel decreased between 1983 and 1995 in all but the public sector.