Maternity Leave Extensions and Gender Gaps: Evidence from an Online Job Platform
We investigate the unintended consequences of maternity leave extension on gender gaps in the labor market. Using millions of job applications on an online job platform and the staggered extension of maternity leave across Chinese provinces, we find that an average increase (22%) in the length of paid maternity leave led to a 3.7 percentage point decrease in positive callbacks to female applicants relative to their male counterparts. In response, female job seekers submitted 4.4 more job applications, shifted toward jobs with 5.4% lower wages, and experienced 0.9 weeks longer job search duration than male applicants. We also find that government subsidies that partially cover firms' wage costs of extended maternity leave help alleviate its adverse impact on gender disparities in hiring.
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