Abstract

This paper focuses on the penalties and premiums associated with marriage and parenthood among physicians. The research is based on a dataset of more than one thousand doctors working in five hospitals in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. The results show that, all else being equal, married fathers report a 15% premium compared to childless single men while married mothers report a 15% penalty compared to single childless women. Marriage and parenthood significantly affect wages only when they are combined together. Moreover, both males' premiums and women' s penalties grow as the number of children increases, but if married fathers' premium occurs from the first child, married mothers' penalty appears only from the second child on.