Maternity leave and the motherhood penalty in Ireland

The motherhood penalty is the drop in earnings many women experience after having a child, which men generally don’t see when they become fathers. Maternity leave is only part of the story, but it is often where the gap starts to open.

Key facts

• 26 weeks: the period Maternity Benefit is paid for. You can take a further 16 weeks of unpaid maternity leave (Citizens Information).
• €299 a week: the standard rate of Maternity Benefit in 2026, set to rise by €10 in January 2027. It is a set rate, not a share of your salary, so it replaces far less of a higher income (Citizens Information).
• 27%: the fall in earnings immediately after childbirth found among Irish women graduates, using earnings records from 2010 to 2020. This study covers university graduates, not all mothers (Doris, O’Neill and Sweetman, Maynooth University).

Why it lasts

The Maynooth researchers found the difference arises almost entirely within existing jobs, not from women changing employers. Hours fall substantially and for a long time after childbirth, but that doesn’t seem to explain the whole drop in earnings.

International research points the same way. A major Danish study found that women’s earnings fall sharply when they have children and recover slowly, while men’s barely change (Kleven, Landais and Søgaard, 2019). This feeds directly into the pay gap, the pension gap and the unequal share of unpaid care.

Where to find out more

• Citizens Information on Maternity Benefit: rates, rules and how to apply
• One Family: support and advocacy for one-parent families
• Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission: the State’s equality and human rights body
• National Women’s Council: Ireland’s national women’s membership organisation
• ESRI: independent Irish social and economic research
• CSO Women and Men in Ireland: official statistics on gender in Ireland

Figures checked October 2026. Each figure gives its year, and newer data may since have been published.