Die individuellen Kosten des Erziehungsurlaubs

The paper addresses the impact of parental leave on the subsequent earnings trajectories of mothers. The empirical analyses are based on fixed-effect-regressions of wage data from the German Socio-Economic Panel 1984–1999. The estimates show that subsequent wages are negatively related to length of parental leave. The negative effect of career interruptions is only partly compensated when women are able to return to their previous employer. In addition, the results show cumulative effects of parental leave periods: negative career effects are small at return to work, yet increase over the subsequent career.