No abstract

A differential fatherhood premium exists among selected groups of fathers of various socioeconomic backgrounds. Besides marital status, residential arrangement, biological paternity, and other demographic dimensions, the mechanisms associated with fathers' structural characteristics of work that produce divergent labor market outcomes are less well understood. The authors leveraged the cases of productivity and specialization, family and responsibility, and compensating differentials and examined the impacts of work context and occupational characteristics on the pay gap between fathers and non-fathers. Based on joint data from the 1997-2015 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) and Occupational Information Network (O*NET) (n = 37,138), the authors used fixed-effects models to estimate the associations between job features and the fatherhood premium. The regression results showed that occupations entailing competition and requiring on-the-job training are associated with more wage bonus; occupations offering inflexible schedule are associated with less wage gain. These work-related characteristics further emphasize fathers' work structure and context, human capital accumulation, and work-family conflict. Overall, these findings are consistent with the theoretical perspectives of productivity and specialization and compensating differentials, adding new evidences to the structural explanations of the fatherhood premium.