Moscow Payments to Women who Have a Child Don’t Compensate for Income They Lose by Doing So, New HSE Study Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 8 – A Russian woman who gives birth to a child loses on average 14 percent of her income compared to her coevals who do not give birth, and such losses are not compensated fully by government payments intended to reverse the decline in fertility rates there, according to a new Higher School of Economics study.

            This “maternity tax” as Russians now refer to it, the HSE study says, grows in size because women with children often shift to part time work or are unable to go on business trips or get training their childless counterparts do and as a result aren’t promoted (province.ru/society/4501069-shtraf-za-materinstvo-pochemu-jenshchinam-v-rossii-nevygodno-rojat/ ).

            Another consequence of this “tax” is that the gender gap in pay is increasing as the government pushes more women to have children without providing them with full compensation for the costs of doing so. This year, for example, according to HSE, that gap increased for the first time since 2013.