The Hidden Cost Of Maternity Leave: How To Reclaim Your Career Momentum

This 'motherhood penalty' is real

Dear FairyGodMentor,

I was slated for a promotion and raise before I went out on leave and was told that we would revisit the discussion once I returned from maternity leave.Well, I’ve been back for about 6 months now and don’t know how to approach the conversation without seeming pushy.

Best Wishes,

Pushing for a Promotion

Dear Pushing for a Promotion,

First off, congrats on motherhood and your newest arrival!

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, working mothers earn about 71 cents for every dollar earned by working fathers. We won’t even get into the fact about how the salary numbers get lower for Black women. That’s a whole other article for another time! This “motherhood penalty” stands in glaring contrast to the “fatherhood bonus,” where men often see increased earnings after having children.

This ‘motherhood penalty’ is real, but it’s not impossible to advocate for career.

It’s one thing to know your value–it’s another thing to show your value. When advocating for yourself after you’ve left the business for a period of time, you’ll want to highlight your results-based accomplishments (that means data that relates to the businesses success.) Ask yourself how many subscribers did you bring in? How much money was made or saved? How many people were hired, recruited, or retained?

Numbers, especially ones that positively impacted the organization, speak to leadership. They want to know that the investment that they’re making in giving you a raise will give them a good ROI (Return on Investment).

You taking time off to grow your family shouldn’t be held against you. If you’re returning to the office after your leave and you want to advocate for a raise, you’ll need to show how you’ve been able to add value to the business before and after your leaves.

Show what you may have done while on leave to keep your skills fresh. Did you assist with marketing, sales, etc. at your child’s school? If you’re a caregiver to elderly or ill parents or a partner out on caregiving leave, there’s a lot of administrative, project management, accounting and legal/patient advocacy work that you’re doing.

The key is to summarize the value that you’ve already brought to the company, additional skills you may have picked up while you were out and what you’ve achieved so quickly after returning to the office.

Don’t equate the time out of the office with doing nothing. You’ve done plenty! You’ve just birthed a human!

You got this!

Yours truly,

Your FairyGodMentor®

Joyel Crawford, fairygodmentor, contributor — (Photo: Kirten White Photography/BE)

Joyel Crawford is an award-winning career and leadership development professional and the founder of Crawford Leadership Strategies, a consultancy that develops empowered, results-driven leaders through engaging leadership development coaching, training, and facilitation. She is the author of the best-selling book and audiobook “Show Your Ask: Using Your Voice to Advocate for Yourself and Your Career.”

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