Motherhood not the career of Gold Diggas
While Kayne West spells Gold Digger like so, not like Digga, I still can't make out a word he's singing about. Which is grand, given I'm not at all fond of hip-hop music. It bores me easily.
But Amalia Miller, an American economist has done research on motherhood and she finds that gold digging it ain't.
So, if you have your first child at 24 instead of 25, you're giving up 10 percent of your lifetime earnings. The wage hit comes in two pieces. There's an immediate drop, followed by a slower rate of growth—right up to the day you retire. So, a 34-year-old woman with a 10-year-old child will (again on average) get smaller percentage raises on a smaller base salary than an otherwise identical woman with a 9-year-old. Each year of delayed childbirth compounds these benefits, at least for women in their 20s. Once you're in your 30s, there's far less reward for continued delay.
I like this kind of research but is earning 10% less a good enough reason to delay childbearing into your 30s when fertility and IVF becomes a real issue?
I'm not saying that everyone should take a trip to their local maternity hospital a few months after graduation, but the economic benefits of delayed motherhood hardly outweighs the other drawbacks.
But Amalia Miller, an American economist has done research on motherhood and she finds that gold digging it ain't.
So, if you have your first child at 24 instead of 25, you're giving up 10 percent of your lifetime earnings. The wage hit comes in two pieces. There's an immediate drop, followed by a slower rate of growth—right up to the day you retire. So, a 34-year-old woman with a 10-year-old child will (again on average) get smaller percentage raises on a smaller base salary than an otherwise identical woman with a 9-year-old. Each year of delayed childbirth compounds these benefits, at least for women in their 20s. Once you're in your 30s, there's far less reward for continued delay.
I like this kind of research but is earning 10% less a good enough reason to delay childbearing into your 30s when fertility and IVF becomes a real issue?
I'm not saying that everyone should take a trip to their local maternity hospital a few months after graduation, but the economic benefits of delayed motherhood hardly outweighs the other drawbacks.
Labels: I'm Not A Feminist
posted by Auds | 23:23
1 Comments:
I suppose by waiting you make more money so you can afford the IVF....
Ann Crittenden wrote a book about motherhood "the price of motherhood" and the only passage that I can remember from it is the description of the other 40somethings waiting in the IVF clinic's waiting room. I for one don't want to be there.
This blog has featured a lot of "I want to get married and have babies" post of late - while I fo, I don't think I think about it as much as I post about it!
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