How better maternity pay can fix the gender pay gap and boost productivity

Poor maternity pay leads to an under-representation of women in higher academic positions, lower salaries

Holiday babies, post-tenure pregnancies and “May” children. These are some of the labels that get attached to women in academia who plan on having children. Many women in academia share a common burden of scheduling their maternity plans: to survive and advance through the faculty ranks, they tend either to give birth during vacation time (which starts in the month of May for a lot of universities). Or they postpone their motherhood status to the end of their probation period, once they have achieved tenure.

There are a few institutions, however, that offer more generous maternity benefits. By comparing the benefits