Parental employment in the pandemic: effects of lockdowns with employment protection policies

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected mothers’ employment in New Zealand, despite a generous wage subsidy scheme that preserved jobs for those employed pre-pandemic. Using administrative tax records, we document a 1–2 percentage point decline in mothers’ likelihood of being employed following the lockdown, while fathers experienced no significant change. This gender gap was driven primarily by delayed workforce re-entry among non-employed mothers rather than job losses among employed mothers. Critically, we observe similar employment declines among future mothers—women without children during our study period—suggesting the pandemic’s differential impact extended beyond childcare demands. These patterns indicate that additional factors such as household bargaining dynamics and individual choices likely contributed to widening the employment gap between men and women during the pandemic.