ABSTRACT
Objective
This study investigates how motherhood and cohabitation affect earnings in intact families and stepfamilies, aiming to clarify how family structure shapes gender inequality.
Background
Despite progress toward gender equality, income gaps persist, particularly around family formation. Parenthood drives these disparities through the well-documented “child penalty,” which disproportionately affects mothers. Recent research also identifies a “cohabitation penalty,” yet most studies focus on intact families, overlooking the growing prevalence of blended families and hereunder stepfamilies.
Method
Using Danish register and survey data, we analyze how cohabitation and childbirth influence earnings trajectories for two groups: mothers whose first child is born in an intact family and stepmothers whose first birth occurs with a partner who already has children. We assess differences in child and cohabitation penalties between these groups.
Results
Ten years after first birth, stepmothers earn about 45% less than before birth and cohabitation, compared to 36% for mothers in intact families. We term this gap the stepmotherhood penalty, reflecting both earnings decline at cohabitation and a larger, more persistent child penalty for stepmothers.
Conclusion
Both mothers in intact families and stepmothers experience substantial earnings losses after childbirth, but penalties are significantly larger and longer-lasting for stepmothers. Unlike mothers in intact families, who gain a small cohabitation premium, stepmothers face an earnings decline at cohabitation.
Implications
As blended families become more common, understanding how family complexity shapes the economic costs of parenthood is crucial. Gender inequality in earnings depends not only on childbirth and cohabitation but also on partner characteristics and family structure.