The Impact of Children on the Gender Wage Gap in Japan

Although the gender wage gap in Japan has become increasingly narrower, it remains large compared to other developed countries. To address this situation, the government enacted the Act on the Promotion of Women’s Active Engagement in Professional Life in 2016. This study investigates how the gender wage gap has changed during this period using data from 2016 to 2022. The main findings are as follows: First, the gender wage gap narrowed over these six years based on attributes such as age, tenure, college degree, marital status, firm size, and managerial position. Second, the presence of children contributed in the opposite direction; specifically, in 2022, the presence of children slightly decreased the wages of highly educated females but increased the male wage premium at every educational level, thus widening the wage gap. Our findings suggest that political measures aimed at reducing the female child penalty, especially those targeting individuals with higher education, are indispensable for narrowing the gender wage gap in Japan.