Return to Work - Mothers' Willingness to Pay for Job Amenities

How can we encourage untapped work potentials, such as young mothers, to participate in the labor market? The present study addresses this issue by providing a direct measure for the relevance of job-related amenities for mothers work decision, namely mothers’ marginal willingness to pay (MWP) for job amenities. Its identification strategy relies on German maternity leave length data. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the Qualification and Career Survey, mothers' leave length decision is estimated by a discrete duration method that assumes a logistic hazard function. The MWP for amenities can be inferred through the estimated elasticities of the leave length with respect to the disamenities and the wage. The results provide evidence that mothers are willing to sacrifice a significant fraction of their wage to reduce hazardous working conditions (more than 20%) and to enjoy a working schedule compatible with available daycare (more than 35%).