Decomposing Wage Differentials at the Intersection of Gender and Parenthood Among Psychologists in Nonacademic Employment

Persistent gender-based challenges have been found among academic psychologists, including women's financial disadvantage and greater caregiver burden compared with men. However, few studies have examined the price of motherhood among psychology professionals in nonacademic employment. This national observational study aimed to disentangle earnings differentials by gender and parenthood status in the nonacademic psychologist workforce in Canada. Drawing on data from the 2016 population census, log-linear regression and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition models were used to quantify the professional and personal characteristics contributing to earnings differences among active psychologists aged 25-54, and to identify any residual that may be attributed to (unmeasured) gender discrimination. Results indicated a heavily feminised profession: 82.3% women in the nonacademic psychologist workforce (N = 14,605). More working women (62%) than men (57%) had children in the household. Women's earnings averaged 9% less than men, after adjusting for numbers and ages of children among other characteristics. Stratifying the models by parental status revealed evidence of a motherhood penalty, in that women with a young child earned significantly less than their counterparts without children. Conversely, men with a young child earned significantly more than those without childcare responsibilities, suggesting a fatherhood premium. Women with children were found to earn 17% less than fathers due to factors unexplained by the measured predictors. The wider parenthood wage gap highlights the imperative for addressing gendered biases and stereotypes that continue to restrain women's careers, as part of equity-oriented and inclusive workplace policies and practices for psychologists in a range of professional settings.