Paid Worker Role and Health 471that jobs were available but showed greater
hostility toward pregnant than nonpregnant
applicants according to audiotapes of the in-
teractions (Hebl et al., 2007).
Employers may have different be-
liefs about mothers and fathers as workers.
Employers may perceive that they can pay
women less than men because they are less
likely to leave their position for more money;
family ties will keep them in the area. Em-
ployers also may believe that mothers are less
dedicated to their work than fathers. A study
of professors in academia showed that senior
faculty perceived that junior faculty moth-
ers were less involved with work than fathers
despite the fact that junior faculty mothers
reported being more involved with work
than fathers (King, 2008). Although mothers
and fathers reported equal interest in career
advancement, senior faculty perceived that
fathers were more interested than mothers.
The concern is that employers’ stereotypes
could influence how they behave toward
mothers and fathers. Employers may be-
lieve it is more worthwhile to reward single
women than married women because single
women are less likely to let family obligations
interfere with work and are more likely to
seek a job elsewhere that pays more money.
Employers may also believe it is more worth-
while to reward fathers than men without
families because fathers have a family to sup-
port. Recall the study of Canadian lawyers
in which family capital was associated with
higher incomes for men (Robson & Wallace,
2001). This phenomenon has been referred
to as themarital bonus for men.
The marital bonus is also alive and well
in China. In a study that examined job ad-
vertisements in China, 40% of the ads were
directly discriminatory in specifying the
sex of the applicant, and a substantial num-
ber referred to the preferred marital status(Woodhams, Lupton, & Xian, 2009). There
was greater concern with the marital status
of women than men. When marital status
was mentioned in the ad, women were pre-
ferred if they were unmarried and men were
preferred if they were married. For women,
being married means that they have domes-
tic responsibilities that could detract from
work. For men, being married means that
they can be more committed to work because
they have someone at home to take care of
domestic responsibilities.
What can women do to escape the
“mommy tax”? One way that women have
resolved this problem is to delay childbear-
ing until they are established in their careers.
These women earn more money and have
greater job opportunities (Crittenden, 2001).
However, this is a choice that is not appeal-
ing to all women—and a choice that men do
not have to make.
One group of women who may not suf-
fer from the wage gap is lesbians. One might
expect that gay men and lesbians earn less
money for comparable work than their het-
erosexual counterparts because of sexual ori-
entation discrimination. This is true in the
case of gay men, but lesbians earn more than
heterosexual women (Black et al., 2003; Peplau
& Fingerhut, 2004). One explanation is based
onhuman capital accumulation theory
(Black et al., 2003). Heterosexual women limit
their market skills more than lesbians because
they expect to be part of a traditional family
where a second income will exist. Lesbians
do not limit their market skills because they
are less certain of a second income. Lesbians
are more educated than heterosexual women
and more likely than heterosexual women to
have full-time jobs. Lesbians are also more
likely than heterosexual women to have non-
traditional jobs, which are associated with
higher salaries. Lesbians have greater freedomM12_HELG0185_04_SE_C12.indd 471 6/21/11 9:16 AM