Juliana Lopes Andrade

Given the several challenges faced by women with children in the labor market, postponing motherhood may represent a strategy for women to accumulate human capital before having a child, increasing their labor market participation, and boosting their income. This paper aims to investigate the impact on women's income in the Brazilian labor market from the postponement of maternity. To achieve this objective, we used the National Health Survey of 2013. To estimate the effects on income, we used the Ordinary Least Squares Method, the Heckman Method and the Instrumental Variables Method. The results of the study suggest that postponing maternity has a positive impact of approximately 2% on earnings each year of postponement. In addition, the results indicate that having children has a negative impact on women's earnings of about 16%. Furthermore, by comparing the income of men and women, the results suggest that being a woman has a negative impact around 22% on the income; however, the postponement reduces this differential, but does not eliminate it.