Why do men receive bonuses when becoming fathers?

Studies have long shown that having children increases workplace inequalities for male and female leaders, such that men receive more pay and promotions (“fatherhood bonuses”) while women receive fewer of both (“motherhood penalties”). But why?

We (coauthors Susanne Braun, Jenny Hoobler, Huong Pham, and Claudia Peus—led by Jamie Gloor) set out to examine the interpersonal processes that might contribute to these patterns, examining the leaders’ own employees’ reactions when they perceived these leaders as having trouble managing their work and family.

Our results across 3 studies in 3 countries and 1,200 participants showed employees responded to male (vs. female) leaders’ work-family conflict—technically a negative experience—with more prosocial motivation to help them as well as more help (e.g., going the extra mile with one’s work, pitching in without being asked). While this extra help may not reduce the work-family conflict, it certainly stands to benefit the leaders and the organizations that employ them.

Our results highlight helping—typically a positively construed behavior—as a potential form of inequality in organizations, which perpetuates gender equity in leadership as a resource given more often and strongly to men than to women.

These findings were published in the Journal of Business Ethics (in English: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-026-06248-1), a well-regarded, Financial Times 50 Journal, and covered in the Tages Anzeiger (in German: https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/vaterbonus-fuehrungskraefte-werden-unterschiedlich-behandelt-559634867548).