A Study Of The Impact Of Child Care On Gender Wage Earnings And Policy Support For Early Childhood Care

In the context of China’s overall economic and social development,women have been able to obtain more employment opportunities from the labor market and have begun to play an important social role in economic development.According to the survey report of the third phase of the Chinese Women’s Social Status Project Group,women’s personal development opportunities have increased significantly in recent years,the difference in labor productivity between men and women has gradually narrowed,women have become more autonomous in making decisions at home and at work,the status of both genders has become more equal,and their role in society has become increasingly prominent.However,with the further introduction and promotion of China’s maternity policy,the conflict between women’s family and work has begun to emerge.More and more surveys show that even though women do not work significantly different hours from men in the labor market,women work significantly more hours than men in family matters.This result indicates that women not only need to work the same number of hours as men in the labor market to ensure their performance.They are also required to be the main labor force in complex household tasks,which require more energy and time,especially after women have given birth.The squeeze on women’s working hours due to the time and energy consumed by these family matters has limited women’s personal development and consequently affected their labor income performance,which undoubtedly deepens women’s employment dilemma.This paper explores the impact of child care on gender wage gap from the perspective of child care on gender wage gap,using the CFPS2016 data after the comprehensive "two-child" policy in China,using basic regression analysis to explore the impact of child care on gender wage and its mechanism of action,and using the CFPS2018 data for robustness analysis,and finally combining with the Nordic countries and other countries.countries’ family-friendly policies to make suggestions and prospects for the improvement direction of China’s child care policy.The main findings of this paper are that(1)mothers’ child care stress is influenced by children’s age;(2)female child care has a negative effect on their income;and(3)male child care does not have a significant effect on their income.As a result,this paper proposes the following four recommendations: strengthen financial support to improve the quality of female employment;improve economic support policies to provide policy protection;promote the establishment of sound child care services to encourage the participation of diverse social themes;and encourage family-friendly work arrangements to protect women’s rights and interests.