She Cares and He Earns? The Family Gap in Poland

This paper deals with parenthood induced inequalities in the labour market outcomes of men and women in Poland. It extends the existing framework of research by providing a joint analysis of parenthood impact on working hours and wages for men and women for a transition economy. Using propensity score matching and fixed effects estimation this paper reveals that parenthood is associated with longer working hours and greater wages for men and shorter working hours and lower wages for women. The gaps in working hours may be however partially attributed to unobserved differences between parents and childless individuals. For men, unobserved heterogeneity also explains their greater wages. Mothers are however found to receive significantly lower wages even if their unobserved characteristics and self-selection into employment are accounted for.