Motherhood devastates women's pay

[Ewe]

Hardly a massive surprised but doesn't make it any easier to swallow!

Link here. Wouldn't it be nice if the government actually listened to these studies?

No shit Sherlock. FGS who pays for this sort of research - I'd do it for half

I love the way they always site childcare as being the issue, it's absolutely not most mums I know who work do not want to, the issue is the cost of living in this country not the need for more nurseries.
We need a return to the days where 1 salary covered the basics and then those who want to work for additional treats can, it all started to go wrong when mums HAD to work to keep a roof over the families head.

Goodness, how many more times do they need to do a study on this? They all say the same thing yet no one does anything about it.

I will never earn what I earned at the beginning of this year after having the twins, because I have just given up £30k a year because my childcare (for twins plus breakfast club and after school for dd1) was almost to the penny what I bring home each month.
So decent childcare in my area for 3 children (1 in full time school) costs the same as £30k gross per annum.

Hence now I am a stay at home mum and we aren't going anyway or doing anything for the next 4 years!

It's hardly news is it? "Olds" perhaps...

No, it's not, yet they keep publishing report after report and producing various articles. I mean, what is the point? Nobody listens, nothing changes.

It's all been spouted many times before and isn't rocket science is it?
It also rather skirts around the issue that many women choose to take a number of years out of the workplace, or return to work on a part time basis etc. The reality is that it's more often the mother rather than the father who makes that choice. Therefore, it's not surprising that in the long term, many women find they don't get as far up the career ladder, or don't earn as much, or haven't paid as much into their pension pot.

I'm absolutely in favour of things like tax deductible childcare etc , but I also think that women do have a choice here. It's not inevitable that having children means your career has to take a nose dive. If you make the decision that you want to stop working/go part time etc then it's hardly reasonable to expect to earn as much as if you carried on full time!

The issue of choice is a thorny one though. You cannot examine the issue of women's choices to take a number of years out of the workplace, without looking at the context within which they are making those choices. Why do they take a few years out? Off the top of my head
some just want to focus totally on their children while young
some would like to work part time but are in an industry/ employment where that is simply not facilitated for no good reason other than the employer / industry can't be arsed with the headache/ work of organising that
some like poorbuthappy find that the childcare costs are such a hit that there is no financial logic to working
some because the men they are with don't even think of taking those few years out or working part time, it's still seen very much as women's work - I'm always astonished by how much of a default it often is - couples I know who haven't even discussed who is going to take time out once maternity/ paternity leave is over. Even in this day and age, the automatic default is that the woman will, sometimes even when she is earning more than the man.

So the choices aren't made in circumstances of the chooser's choosing, IYSWIM. Those choices might be v. different if the circumstances within which we operate were different.