Mothers across England are facing a stark and persistent reduction in earnings after having children, new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals. The findings, which span from April 2014 to December 2022, paint a sobering picture: five years after the birth of their first child, mothers’ monthly earnings drop by an average of £1,051 compared to their income one year prior to giving birth. This so-called "motherhood penalty" isn’t just a short-term setback—it’s a long-lasting financial blow that continues to affect women with each subsequent child.
The ONS’s comprehensive analysis, the first of its kind, tracked the employment and earnings of mothers after the birth of their first, second, and third children over an eight-year period. The numbers are startling. Five years after the birth of a second child, mothers earn £313 less per month, and after a third child, the figure stands at £689 less per month, all compared to their pre-birth salaries. Over five years, this translates to a total loss of £65,618 for a first child, £26,317 for a second, and £32,456 for a third.
According to BBC News, these losses are most acute in the first year after childbirth, when mothers are more likely than fathers to take extended parental leave. The ONS also found that the probability of mothers being in paid employment drops significantly—by 15 percentage points—18 months after the birth of a first child, with similar trends seen after subsequent births. While earnings begin to stabilize about a year after childbirth, the financial gap never fully closes.
Rachel Grocott, chief executive of the campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, called the findings “completely abhorrent” and emphasized, “the impact of the motherhood penalty is not just unfair—it's avoidable.” She told Personnel Today, “If men experienced this kind of penalty for becoming parents, we’d have fixed it years ago. Instead, women are punished for caring, sidelined at work, and expected to just absorb the cost. Is it any wonder that women are second-guessing having kids today? The cards are stacked so heavily against them that being able to afford kids is becoming a luxury.”
The gender pay gap in the UK, though slowly narrowing, remains persistent. As of 2025, women working full time still earn 7% less than men. Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, noted that “the vast majority” of the gender pay gap is linked directly to the motherhood penalty. She pointed to a “perfect storm of bias, outdated legislation, and cultural norms,” including unaffordable childcare costs, an unbalanced parental leave system, a lack of flexible and part-time job options, and ongoing pregnancy and maternity discrimination.
For many mothers, the reality of these statistics is deeply personal. Femilola Miller from London, who has three children aged seven, five, and three, shared with BBC News that before starting a family, she and her husband had similar salaries. Now, her husband earns £55,000 more per year. Despite both parents taking several months off work after each child was born, “every time my husband went back to work, he got a promotion,” she recalls. Miller believes the motherhood penalty is “engrained in society,” reinforced by stereotypes that are often enforced unconsciously. “It was not even a question about what was going to happen to David’s career,” she said. “I had a career before I had children and I want to carry on working full-time.”
Evie Jay from Newcastle, mother to three-year-old Ellie, echoed these sentiments. She described becoming a mother as “the best thing that’s happened to me, but career-wise, it has been a punishment.” She told BBC News, “You’re expected to be a parent like you don’t work, but work like you haven’t got kids. You can’t win.”
The financial penalties are not limited to lost wages. According to research from Pregnant Then Screwed and Women in Data, up to 74,000 new or expectant mothers lose their jobs each year due to pregnancy and maternity discrimination. The government has responded with several measures: 30 hours a week of funded childcare for working parents, a review of parental leave, and new laws introduced in 2024 in England, Wales, and Scotland that offer greater protection against redundancy for women who are pregnant or on maternity leave. However, critics argue that these steps, while positive, are not enough.
Alice Martin, head of research at the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, called the ONS figures “a stark and unfair reality for working mothers in the UK.” She told Personnel Today, “Government is aiming to ‘make work pay’ but women who become mothers face persistent and significant disadvantages in pay and progression. They are forced to trade job security and opportunities to manage early motherhood and ongoing childcare.” Martin also highlighted that more than a quarter of working-age women remain economically inactive, despite the government’s target of 80% employment. “Addressing the motherhood penalty requires bringing parental leave policies into the twenty-first century, ensuring both mothers and fathers get ample paid time off when they become parents—we should properly accommodate parenthood alongside work, not in spite of it,” she said.
Some employers are taking steps to improve the situation, particularly in New Zealand, where term-time working options and holiday programme support are becoming more common. According to reporting from RNZ, about 20% of jobs listed on the Jobs for Mums platform offer term-time working, allowing parents to work only during school terms and take time off during holidays. While this often means a reduction in pay, many parents are willing to make the trade-off for more quality time with their families. EY, for example, allows parents to purchase additional leave—between nine and 12 weeks—to align work schedules with school terms.
Other companies, like Tax Traders, have introduced subsidized or free school holiday programmes for employees’ children, offering outings and activities at a minimal cost—just 0.16% of the overall business budget. These initiatives have been described as “life-changing” by staff, and business leaders argue they foster a positive workplace culture. However, experts caution that such benefits must be offered fairly to avoid discrimination against employees without school-aged children.
Flexibility in work arrangements is increasingly seen as essential for improving work-life balance, productivity, and reducing the gender pay gap. Joanne Mutter, a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland Business School, told RNZ, “If we could just normalise flexible working so that everybody took advantage of it and it no longer was a woman’s issue, then women wouldn’t have to pay for flexibility, which is fundamentally what they do now.”
Despite some progress, the motherhood penalty remains a stubborn and costly barrier for women in the workforce. Campaigners, researchers, and affected mothers alike are calling for urgent reforms—affordable childcare, balanced parental leave, and workplace cultures that truly accommodate parenthood. Until these changes are realized, the cost of motherhood will continue to be counted not just in lost earnings, but in lost opportunities and unfulfilled potential.
