Michelle Budig

Michelle J. Budig, PhD, is Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research interests include labor market inequalities, wage penalties for paid and unpaid caregiving, work-family policy, and nonstandard employment. She is currently collaborating on a grant from the United State-Israel Binational Science Foundation to investigate variation in the wage penalty for motherhood among Isreali women. Her research has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Problems, Journal of Marriage and the Family, and numerous other professional journals. A past Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, her scholarship has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Kauffman Foundation, the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. She is a past recipient of the Reuben Hill Award from the National Council on Family Relations, the World Bank/ Luxembourg Income Study Gender Research Award, and a two-time recipient of the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Research Excellence in Families and Work. She has provided expert testimony on the gender pay gap and the motherhood wage penalty to the US Congressional Joint Economic Commission and the Massachusetts State Legislature. 

Selected Publications

• 2019. “Wages for Nurturant and Reproductive Care Workers: Individual and Job Characteristics, Occupational Closure, and Wage-Equalizing Institutions.” Michelle J. Budig, Melissa Hodges, and Paula England. Social Problems 66:294-319
• 2016. “Do Highly Paid, Highly Skilled Women Experience the Largest Motherhood Penalty?” Paula England, Jonathan Bearak, Michelle Budig, and Melissa Hodges. American Sociological Review 81(6):1161-89.
• 2016. “Cohort Differences and the Marriage Bonus: Emergence of Gender-Neutral Household Specialization Effects.” Michelle J. Budig and Misun Lim. Journal of Marriage and the Family 78:​1352-70.
• 2016. “Work-Family Policy Tradeoffs for Mothers? Unpacking the Cross-National Variation in the Motherhood Earnings Penalties.” Michelle J. Budig, Joya Misra, and Irene Boeckmann. Work and Occupations 43(2):119-77.
• 2015. “Cultural and Institutional Factors Shaping Mothers’ Employment and Working Hours in Postindustrial Countries.” Irene Boeckmann*, Joya Misra, and Michelle Budig. Social Forces 93(4): 1301-33.
• 2014. “Statistical Models and Empirical Evidence for Differences in the Motherhood Wage Penalty Across the Earnings Distribution: A Reply to Killewald and Bearak.” Michelle J. Budig and Melissa Hodges.* American Sociological Review 79(2):358-64.
• 2013. “From the Shop Floor to the Kitchen Floor: Maternal Job Complexity and Children’s Reading and Math Skills.” Ayse Yetis-Bayraktar*, Michelle J. Budig, and Donald Tomaskovic-Devey. Work and Occupations 40(1):38-65.
• 2012. “The Motherhood Pay Gap Cross-Nationally: How Work-Family Policies and Cultural Attitudes Intersect.” Michelle J. Budig, Joya Misra, and Irene Boeckmann*. Social Politics 19(2):163-193.

Selected Awards and Honors

• 2018. Chancellor's Leadership Fellowship, University of Massachusetts.
• 2016. Dean's Faculty Excellence in Research Award, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Massachusetts.
• 2012. Article of the Year Award, American Sociological Association Section on the Family.
• 2011. Reuben Hill Award, Research and Theory Section, National Council on Family Relations.
• 2011. Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Research Excellence in Families and Work, Center for Families at Purdue University and the Boston College Center for Work & Family.
• 2009. World Bank / Luxembourg Income Study Gender Research Award.
• 2003. Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Research Excellence in Families & Work, Center for Families at Purdue University and the Boston College Center for Work & Family.

Recent Presentations

• 2019    2nd Annual Faculty Success Professionals Summer Conference (Kansas City, KS) “Supporting Faculty After Tenure.” With Annmarie Cano, Kevin Delaney, and Janet Kistner.
• 2019    Haifa University (Haifa, Israel) “Racial and Gender Disparities in Educational Attainment and the Wage Returns of Education.” With Misun Lim and Melissa Hodges.
• 2019    International Sociological Association RC28 Annual Meeting (Princeton, NJ) “Partners’ Economic Standing and Their Impact on the Cost of Motherhood: the Case of a High Fertility Country, Israel 1996-2012.” With Asaf Levanon and Vered Kraus.
• 2019    International Sociological Association RC28 Spring Meeting 2019 (Frankfurt, Germany) “Ethno-National Variation in the Motherhood Wage Penalty, 1966-2012.” With Asaf Levanon and Vered Kraus.
• 2018. American Sociological Association (Philadelphia, PA) “Racial and Gender Disparities in the Wage Returns for Educational Attainment.” With Misun Lim and Melissa Hodges.
• 2017. University of Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (Bamberg, Germany) “Attitudes, Work-Family Policies, and the Wage Penalty for Motherhood in Comparative Perspective.”
• 2017. Population Association of America (Chicago, IL) “Wages for Nurturant and Reproductive Care Workers: Adjudicating Individual and Structural Arguments of Sources of the Care Penalty.” With Paula England and Melissa Hodges.
• 2016. American Sociological Association (Seattle, WA) “How the Motherhood Penalty Varies by Wage, Cognitive Skill, and Race.” With Paula England, Jonathan Bearak, & Melissa Hodges.
• 2016. Population Association of America (Washington, DC) “Cohort Differences and the Marriage Premium: Emergence of Gender-Neutral Household Specialization Effects.” With Misun Lim.
• 2016. Work-Family Researchers Network (Washington, DC) “Decomposing the Self- Employment Gender Gap Across Countries: The Importance of Contextual Factors.” With Misum Lim.
• 2015. Family Dynamics Symposium, University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia) “Work and Families: How Self-Employment Is a Solution to Work-Family Conflict in Cross- National Perspective.”
• 2015. School of Social and Political Sciences Seminar Series, University of Melbourne (Melbourne, Australia) “Are Work-Family Policies Good or Bad for Gender Inequality?”

Selected Grants

• 2017-20, “Do Israeli Mothers Pay a Penalty for Children During their Life Course?” Asaf Levanon (PI), Michelle J. Budig (Co-PI), and Vered Kraus (Co-PI). US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, $99,000.
• 2014-2016, “Cross-national Differences in Gendered Self-Employment Participation and Earnings: The Role of Work-Family Policy and Cultural Contexts,” Michelle J. Budig, PI. National Science Foundation, $179,997.
• 2011-12, “Penalties for Paid and Unpaid Carework,” Paula England, Suzanne Bianchi, Michelle J. Budig, and Joan Kahn (Co-PIs). Russell Sage Foundation. $146,515
• 2008-10, “Estimating the Cross-National Effects of Family Policies on the Wage Penalty for Motherhood Using Multilevel Models,” Michelle J. Budig (PI) and Joya Misra (Co-PI). National Science Foundation, $81,971.
• 2007-08, Humboldt Research Fellowship “Work-Family Reconciliation Policies, Women’s Employment, and Family Formation Outcomes: A Cross-National Analysis.” The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to conduct research at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany. Michelle J. Budig (PI), $43,000.
• 2006-08, “The Cross-National Effects of Work-Family Policies on the Wage Penalty for Motherhood,” Joya Misra (PI) and Michelle J. Budig (Co-PI). National Science Foundation, $108,000.