The Impact of Parenthood on Labour Market Outcomes of Women and Men in Poland

Radost Waszkiewicz; Honorata Bogusz

doi:10.2478/ceej-2026-0008

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The Impact of Parenthood on Labour Market Outcomes of Women and Men in Poland

Central European Economic Journal

Volume 13 (2026): Issue 60 (January 2026)

By: Radost Waszkiewicz and Honorata Bogusz

Open Access

|Jun 2026

Figures & Tables

(A) Mean of individual income of mothers and fathers (post-tax, including individual transfers and individuals with no income and excluding household transfers) as a function of time since first childbirth, compared with the control groups of childless individuals estimated with the placebo event method. The horizontal lines show the minimum wage post-tax (2010) and the mean wage of full time (40 hours/week) workers in companies employing more than 9 workers (2010, tax adjusted). (B) Analogous estimations to Panel A calculated for individuals working full time.

(A) Mean number of hours worked as a function of time since first childbirth compared with the control group of childless individuals, estimated with the placebo event method (including the non-working population). The unexpectedly high number of hours worked for mothers in the first year after birth is an artefact of the questionnaire's design: women on maternity leave are asked about the number of hours in the last job before taking the leave. (B) Percentage of population working at least 40 hours a week.

(A) Total income and total counterfactual income as a multiple of the real mean total income with confidence bands determined by bootstrap (1σ CI of 50 rounds). Incomes taken from the 2010 survey and child data from the 2014 survey (hence the adjustment includes anticipatory behaviours). (B) Hourly wages of people working 40 hours a week as a multiple of the mean value in that group (1σ CI of 50 bootstrap rounds).

(A) Unadjusted gender pay gap data from Eurostat show differences in hourly earnings. In this methodology, countries such as Romania, Italy and Poland share a very low (below 5%) value of GPG. (B) Gender overall earnings gap from Eurostat (2023): ‘The gender overall earnings gap is a synthetic indicator. It measures the impact of the three combined factors, namely: (1) the average hourly earnings, (2) the monthly average of the number of hours paid (before any adjustment for part-time work) and (3) the employment rate, on the average earnings of all women of working age - whether employed or not employed - compared to men.’ Here, countries with low female employment rates, which record the lowest gender wage gaps, such as Poland, Romania or Italy, actually score higher gender overall earnings gaps than the more gender-egalitarian Scandinavian countries, for example.

Per cent of affirmative answers to two questions selected from the International Social Survey Programme: Family and Changing Gender Roles (ISSP Research Group, 2016). Data for 2012.

Lognormal distributions were used compared with the empirical density of age at first birth.

Share of working individuals as a function of time since first childbirth, compared with the control groups of childless individuals estimated with the placebo event method.

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on total income (including zeros), by gender

	Men			Women
	Pre (A)	Post (B)	Diff. (B–A)	Pre (C)	Post (D)	Diff. (D–C)
Parents (1)	2459.7	2403.9	−55.8	1205.8	997.7	−208.1
	(196.4)	(170.0)	(259.8)	(83.6)	(80.3)	(115.9)
Non-parents (2)	1369.1	1803.9	434.8	808.6	1323.9	515.3
	(56.3)	(116.5)	(78.5)	(37.3)	(71.3)	(45.9)
Diff. (1–2)			−490.6			−723.4
			(271.4)			(124.7)

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on the share of people working at least 5 hours a week, by gender

	Men			Women
	Pre (A)	Post (B)	Diff. (B–A)	Pre (C)	Post (D)	Diff. (D–C)
Parents (1)	0.926	0.867	−0.060	0.715	0.616	−0.099
	(0.025)	(0.029)	(0.039)	(0.039)	(0.036)	(0.053)
Non-parents (2)	0.646	0.779	0.133	0.388	0.650	0.262
	(0.019)	(0.021)	(0.014)	(0.019)	(0.024)	(0.014)
Diff. (1–2)			−0.193			−0.361
			(0.041)			(0.055)

Sample means (2010) by gender and parental status (2014), unmatched

	Men	Women
	Parents	Non-parents	Parents	Non-parents
Mean total income (PLN)	2015.19	1222.75	1222.58	1134.38
Mean income (excl. zeros)	2086.39	1557.66	1387.13	1482.71
Mean hours worked	24.71	21.85	15.20	14.88
Mean income (full-time workers)	2385.86	1871.62	1757.71	1840.50
Percent working ≥5 hours	54.34	51.16	38.32	37.19
Percent working ≥40 hours	49.34	43.59	29.55	30.38
Percent working ≥60 hours	8.09	4.45	1.88	2.33
Number of observations	3194	986	5766	962

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on working time (hours/week), by gender

	Men			Women
	pre (A)	post (B)	diff. (B–A)	pre (C)	post (D)	diff. (D–C)
Parents (1)	41.8	39.7	−2.2	27.8	23.8	−4.0
	(1.6)	(1.6)	(2.3)	(1.6)	(1.6)	(2.2)
Non-parents (2)	27.7	33.9	6.2	15.4	26.5	11.1
	(0.9)	(1.1)	(0.7)	(0.8)	(1.1)	(0.7)
Diff. (1–2)			−8.4			−15.1
			(2.4)			(2.3)

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on the income of full-time workers, by gender

	Men			Women
	Pre (A)	Post (B)	Diff. (B–A)	Pre (C)	Post (D)	Diff. (D–C)
Parents (1)	2046.9	2306.6	259.7	1677.4	1501.5	−175.8
	(114.0)	(148.3)	(187.0)	(94.9)	(112.1)	(146.8)
Non-parents (2)	1824.8	2083.0	258.2	1383.3	1550.8	167.6
	(65.6)	(129.3)	(80.1)	(74.0)	(63.6)	(51.2)
Diff. (1–2)			1.5			−343.4
			(203.4)			(155.5)

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on the share of people working full time (at least 40 hours a week), by gender

	Men			Women
	pre (A)	post (B)	diff. (B–A)	pre (C)	post (D)	diff. (D–C)
Parents (1)	0.832	0.821	−0.011	0.604	0.451	−0.153
	(0.037)	(0.033)	(0.049)	(0.042)	(0.037)	(0.056)
Non-parents (2)	0.568	0.689	0.121	0.310	0.549	0.239
	(0.020)	(0.025)	(0.016)	(0.018)	(0.026)	(0.015)
Diff. (1–2)			−0.132			−0.392
			(0.052)			(0.058)

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ceej-2026-0008 | Journal eISSN: 2543-6821 | Journal ISSN: 2544-9001

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Language: English

Page range: 137 - 152

Submitted on: Dec 10, 2025

Accepted on: Apr 15, 2026

Published on: Jun 6, 2026

Published by: Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

Keywords:

child penalty,

child premium,

gender gap in income,

Poland

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Political economics,

Economic theory, systems and structures,

Microeconomics,

Macroeconomics,

Economic policy

© 2026 Radost Waszkiewicz, Honorata Bogusz, published by Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 13 (2026): Issue 60 (January 2026)

The Impact of Parenthood on Labour Market Outcomes of Women and Men in Poland

Figures & Tables

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure A1.

Figure A2.

Figure A3.

Figure A4.

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on total income (including zeros), by gender

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on the share of people working at least 5 hours a week, by gender

Sample means (2010) by gender and parental status (2014), unmatched

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on working time (hours/week), by gender

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on the income of full-time workers, by gender

Difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of childbirth on the share of people working full time (at least 40 hours a week), by gender

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