Low-skilled immigrants and the relative wages of high-skilled mothers

This paper examines the effects of low-skilled immigration inflows on the motherhood gaps in wages among high-skilled women. Applying IV methods to U.S. census and ACS data, this paper first confirms previous findings in the literature that mothers are less willing to increase their work hours than childless women with inflows of low-skilled immigrants. However, the main contribution of the paper is showing that as the low-skilled labor supply increases, high-skilled mothers achieve more wage improvement than otherwise identical nonmothers. The findings in this paper imply that an increase in the low-skilled labor supply reduces the gender pay gap among high-skilled native workers, and most importantly, it is driven by women with children.

Automated summary

This paper examines the effects of low-skilled immigration inflows on the motherhood gaps in wages among high-skilled women. The findings confirm that mothers are less willing to increase their work hours compared to childless women with the presence of low-skilled immigration. However, it also shows that high-skilled mothers experience more wage improvement as the low-skilled labor supply increases. This suggests that an increase in low-skilled labor supply reduces the gender pay gap among high-skilled native female workers, particularly those with children.