Does Anti-Discrimination Legislation Work? The Case of Motherhood Penalty in the Czech Republic

The paper explores the effect of implementation of the Antidiscrimination Act 2009 (ADA) in the Czech Republic on a size of the motherhood penalty using the EU SILC data over the years 2006 through 2017. We employ several methods to estimate the impact and to show that ADA leads to a substantial decline in the motherhood penalty. Before the ADA implementation the average motherhood penalty fluctuated between 12% and 17,5%, after the ADA implementation the statistical significance of motherhood penalty disappeared. However, we also find that wage penalties stemming from the lower work experience due to motherhood-related breaks and lower work intensity during the motherhood are still substantial (10,12%).