Transitions from Standard Employment to Nonstandard Employment and Earnings Consequences by Gender and Parenthood

• In Event: Sociology of Sex and Gender Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8. Gendered Work Trajectories and Labor Market Inequality

Abstract

While previous studies have documented gender disparities in career mobility and earnings consequences, they have largely confined their analyses to full-time standard employment, leaving transitions into nonstandard employment and earnings consequences underexplored. This study addresses these gaps by examining whether women disproportionately transition from full-time standard employment to nonstandard employment, whether having children increases women’s likelihood of making such transitions, and how these transitions shape earnings consequences with particular attention to motherhood. Drawing on waves 1–4 of the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), the transition analysis shows that women are more likely than men to move from standard employment into part-time employment, while men are more likely to transition into unincorporated self-employment. Having children increases women’s likelihood of transitioning into part-time employment and unincorporated self-employment. The earnings analysis reveals that mothers do not experience earnings penalties in part-time employment, unincorporated self-employment, or incorporated self-employment relative to childless women. However, mothers in other informal work arrangements, including on-call, day labor, and other casual jobs, face severe earnings losses, suggesting that the motherhood penalty is concentrated in the most precarious employment forms. By incorporating various types of nonstandard work arrangements and standard employment, this study offers a comprehensive portrait of gender disparities in employment mobility and earnings across the full workforce, advancing our empirical understanding of gender inequality in today's changing labor market.

Author

• DongEun Shin, University at Albany, SUNY