Publication type
Journal Article
Author
Publication date
January 15, 2027
Summary:
Up to one in five or six recognised pregnancies ends in an involuntary loss, yet what follows for women’s working lives is largely undocumented. In fifteen waves of the UK panel Understanding Society, this event study follows 2654 women whose first reported pregnancy ends in a live birth or a loss, each against her own pre-pregnancy baseline. After a loss, the hourly wage declines by 6 to 7% in the first year, with no detectable change in employment or hours. Employment and hours fall from the second year, and earnings decline by about £760 per month after five years, concentrated among the women who later become mothers, unlike the wage decline. Human capital, subsequent childbearing, career characteristics, and health account for only part of these gaps. Women whose pregnancy ends in a live birth show the well-documented child penalty. A pregnancy loss, then, carries labour-market costs in its own right.
Published in
Social Science Research
Volume
Volume: 141:103450
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2026.103450
ISSN
49089
Subjects
Notes
Open Access
Under a Creative Commons license
© 2026 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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