Working Moms In High Powered Professions Closing Wage Gap, Often Earn More Than Childless Women Now

Working moms are one of the more challenged groups among professionals, contending with both the gender pay gap as well as the high cost of childcare and difficulty in maintaining career continuity when factoring in absences due to childbirth and recovery.

But there is some good news for working moms, at least those in high-powered positions — it appears their hard work is paying off. New study data indicates that working moms are closing up salary gaps observed in recent decades, and in some cases, even earning more than their childless counterparts.

Careers like medicine and general business show the most gains for working moms, and data reported at a recent conference of the Population Association of America, comprised of leading demographers, indicates that some of the moves forward are pretty impressive.

A quote from some of the working mom pay gains research over on Shine! indicates:

” … [being ] married with young children is associated with higher earnings than being single without children in math and physical science, engineering and computer sciences, life sciences, medicine, law, and business … women with young children earn more in most elite occupations than women without children.”

Sociologists are just beginning to look at the reasons working moms are beginning to out earn their peers without children, and no definitive link to any particular causative factors has been established. But the site spoke to one working mom who suggested that the responsibility of being a young mother led to a stronger focus and drive.

Diandra Prieto, a married dietician, said:

“When I got pregnant, I couldn’t party, so I focused more on school … I excelled pretty easily.”

Are you a working mom who began really putting the pedal down when you had children?