Menopause Penalty: Women In Midlife See 4.3% Drop In Wages, Reveals Study

Women face numerous biases at the workplace, like the pay gap or lack of childcare support. A recent study has revealed another challenge—the "menopause penalty." Women in their midlife face a 4.3% drop in earnings, according to economists at the University College London (UCL), University of Bergen, Stanford University and University of Delaware. The researchers added that the losses widen to 10% by the fourth year after menopause diagnosis. 

Menopause Penalty

Researchers analysed population-wide data from Sweden and Norway. It included medical records that identified the date of the first menopause diagnosis of women born between 1961 and 1968 who had a menopause-related diagnosis between the ages of 45 and 55. The observations revealed a significant gap in pay structure during midlife.

The impact is not uniform across all women, as those without a university degree experience greater financial setbacks, while graduate women face no earnings penalty, likely due to better awareness. Moreover, women in smaller and private-sector firms face steeper wage declines compared to those in larger or public-sector organisations.

Gabriella Conti, the lead researcher and UCL professor, pointed out that the study focuses only on women who were formally diagnosed with menoapause. They told Fortune that only about a third of women in menopause get a diagnosis, and so "it’s not saying that every woman in menopause has a wage loss of 10%."

Conti explained, "So this is looking at the woman who has a severe menopause, in the sense that she has symptoms. It could be perimenopause, postmenopausal bleeding, and various different conditions.” Once diagnosed, researchers found that various 'related conditions' are diagnosed, affecting work productivity.

"For example, we see that these women are also diagnosed with symptoms related to tiredness, headaches, migraine, feeling acute stress, feeling depressed. And when you have this variety of morbidities, you’re probably not able to work as well as you were working before—you don’t feel as well, and your productivity might not be as high as before,” Conti said.

How Menopause Can Impact Economy

The fall in earnings during menopause, they found, was driven by less time working. The researchers said that the likelihood of claiming disability insurance benefits increased by 4.8% in the four years following a menopause diagnosis, suggesting that menopause symptoms significantly impact women’s work patterns.

Although the findings were related to just two countries, the researchers believe that the data is translatable everywhere else. These observations are dependent on resources for awareness, healthcare, and mental+emotional suppport, they said. Their research shows, as Gabriella Conti explained, that a workplace’s support during menopause plays a big role.

“If you are able to accommodate women [in menopause] and to create a supportive workplace, then it can also make a big difference,” Conti told Fortune. As a result of their 'menopause penalty' findings, the researchers are highlighting the need for increased menopause awareness and better access to healthcare and support.