This is how new mums boost their income in the first year after giving birth through remote working

Working from home enables mothers to regain their income in the first year after giving birth. This is according to the INPS in its annual report, in which it examined remote working as a means of achieving a better work-life balance.

According to INPS, mothers employed in sectors and regions with greater potential for remote working have, since 2021, recorded higher incomes in the year following childbirth, with a reduction in the ‘child penalty’ of around 87 per cent amongst those who have actually adopted this way of working. The benefits are particularly pronounced among younger mothers with lower incomes and those who commute, consistent with the hypothesis that greater flexibility helps to ease time constraints and contractual rigidity precisely where they are most stringent.

Fathers’ incomes do not show any significant changes in response to flexible working arrangements around the time of a child’s birth. However, fathers’ access to remote working reduces mothers’ loss of income to an extent comparable to the effect generated by mothers’ own ability to work from home. Furthermore, the results show that fertility increases among mothers with greater exposure to flexible working arrangements, suggesting that such arrangements reduce the employment costs associated with having children.

The INPS has also carried out an analysis of the age threshold of 12 years introduced by Law No. 81 of 2017, which grants parents with children under that age priority access to remote working, with a view to estimating its impact on the employment outcomes of the beneficiaries. The results show, for eligible mothers, a wage increase of between 1 and 2 per cent, attributable mainly to an increase in the number of days worked.