Analysis finds UK mothers will earn £4.44 less an hour than fathers in 2023

The “motherhood penalty” is wreaking havoc on women and the economy, campaigners say, as new analysis shows the pay gap between mothers and fathers in the UK has widened by almost £1 an hour since 2020.

A study on the hourly earnings of mothers and fathers, released on International Women’s Day, found that mothers earned on average 24% less per hour than fathers in 2023, a “mother’s wage penalty” of £4.44 an hour.

The analysis, which compared ONS data from January to March 2023 with the same period in 2020, found that fathers’ median hourly earnings were £18.48, while mothers’ median hourly earnings were £14.04.

The campaign group Pregnant and Screwed up, which commissioned the analysis, said there were signs the situation was getting worse. The survey found the gap in median hourly earnings between mothers and fathers has widened by 93p, or 1.3%, since 2020.

Joeli Brearley, chief executive of Pregnant then Screwed, said increases in childcare costs and inflation since 2000 had made it “harder for women to have children and live a decent life”.

“These issues are quietly eroding mothers’ careers, and unless our governments and employers prioritize these issues, this pay gap will continue to wreak havoc on women, families and our economy,” she said.

although The gender pay gap has been slowly closing After decades of progress, progress seemed to have stalled in recent years. The gap among full-time employees will increase to 7.7% in 2023 from 7.6% in 2022, but the gap among all employees will decrease from 14.4% to 14.3%.

Care responsibilities mean women often have to put their careers on hold and are more likely to work part-time – around 15% of men work part-time, compared with around 15% of men. 42% of womenBrearley said this means the motherhood penalty accounts for nearly all of the gender pay gap.

“This is a serious problem that ensures women have less power and autonomy than men,” she said. “It also exacerbates child poverty – the children themselves are not poor, they are poor because their mothers are poor.”

according to Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal StudiesMen’s average earnings are “almost completely unaffected by parenthood,” but women’s earnings drop sharply after having children and stabilize at much lower levels with little growth – seven years after the birth of their first child. Women’s average earnings are average. Less than half that of men.

The research, conducted ahead of Mother’s Day on Sunday, revealed that mothers earned 43% less than fathers in the first three months of last year (£442 versus £769), based on median weekly earnings.

“While we all love breakfast in bed and a bouquet of flowers, what women really want on Mother’s Day is affordable, quality child care, a workplace fit for the 21st century and an end to pregnancy discrimination,” said the organization’s CEO Jay Jemima Olchawski said. Fawcett Society.