Research Reveals Women Take Substantial Earnings Hit During Menopause
Research Reveals Women Take Substantial Earnings Hit During Menopause
According to a new study from Stanford economist Petra Persson, women who visit a health care provider with menopause-related symptoms are earning 10% less four years later.
Menopause policies in the workplace are on the rise for a reason: Women who are near or at the end of their reproductive years now make up an estimated 20% of the U.S. labor force. That means a significant portion of workers are struggling with hot flashes, poor concentration, and other often debilitating effects of changing hormones.
At What Cost?
While the physiological and mental health effects of menopause are well known, the economic toll that this life transition takes on women is not.
There’s more clarity now. New research from Petra Persson, a faculty fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and a SHP courtesy faculty member, is one of the first studies to measure the economics of menopause, and the results, she says, are startling. The study finds, among other takeaways, that there is a significant decline in earnings among menopausal women. Women who visit a health care provider with menopause-related symptoms are earning 10% less four years later – and it’s because they either cut back on their work hours or quit altogether.
The effects are concentrated among women without college degrees and who work manual or routine-intensive jobs. Women who work in smaller, private-sector companies are also more likely to experience the worst effects of the “menopause penalty.”
