Changes in Mothers’ Earnings Around the Time of Divorce

Abstract This chapter examines the earnings trajectories of divorced mothers in Germany. It explores earnings changes around the time of divorce, and investigates how the gendered division of work and employment patterns during marriage affects the post-divorce earnings of women with children. The data come from the German Statutory Pension Register, which provides monthly employment and earnings histories as of age 14, as well as complete fertility biographies and marriage histories for the divorced women we study. The analytical sample of this study contains 6850 women with minor children who entered the divorce process between 1992 and 2013. The analysis shows that the mothers’ earnings increased around the time of divorce, and that the mothers of the most recent divorce cohort had higher earnings than the mothers of the earlier divorce cohorts. Despite these increases, the divorced mothers earned only 40% of average earnings. The mothers’ earnings patterns during marriage and the ages of their children explain a large share of these earnings patterns after divorce.