Sickness absences among young mothers and the child penalty in employment

While a growing literature documents the negative impact of motherhood on women’s career trajectories, the specific mechanisms behind their “decisions” to leave the labor market remain largely undocumented. Our paper fills this gap by showing that career breaks due to health-related issues restrict young mothers from full labor force participation. Using Belgian administrative data from 2002-2016 and an event study design, we reveal that the gender gap in sickness absences only appears after the birth of a first child, and is predominantly reflecting an increase in mental health disorders. Surprisingly, this child penalty does not disappear over the long run: even up to eight years after childbirth, women are 1.2 percentage points more likely than men to stop working because of health-related issues. When connecting sickness absences to the overall child penalty in employment, we find that 17% of women who leave the labor market after having children go on to claim sickness benefits. This effect is the largest for mothers in physically demanding jobs, and more moderate for those in family-friendly occupations.