How to Keep Mothers in the Workforce: What Works

In April to June 2021, 3 in 4 mothers with dependent children in the UK were in work (ONS, 2022). That was the highest level for the quarter in 20 years, up from 66.5% in 2002. Mothers are a large part of the UK workforce.

An employment rate counts who holds a job. It says little about whether a mother's pay, hours and prospects survive the first years of parenthood. ONS analysis of births between 2014 and 2022 found a steep drop. At 5 years after a first child, mothers' average monthly earnings were 42% lower than in the year before the birth (ONS, 2025).

This post covers what other countries show, which workplace policies are linked to staying in full-time work, and what UK employers can build inside the current law.

Does a high maternal employment rate mean mothers are retained?

A high employment rate counts mothers in any job, at any hours and at any level of pay. Retention asks whether the same person keeps her pay, hours and progression after children. UK data shows large falls in earnings and in the likelihood of paid work across the 5 years after a first birth.

At the 5-year mark, average monthly earnings were £1,051 lower, a fall of 42%. The probability of paid employment dropped by up to 15.0 percentage points after a first birth. After a second birth the largest drop was 10.5 points (ONS, 2025).

ONS could not identify the reasons. Its authors suggest the pattern may reflect moves to part-time work or a change in the type of employment. That is a question each employer can ask of its own data. Where do mothers go after leave, and at what level of pay and responsibility?

What does it cost to lose a returning mother?

The visible cost is recruitment. SHRM's 2022 benchmarking data put the average US cost per hire at nearly $4,700. Salary, onboarding time and lost knowledge sit on top of that figure and vary by role. Each employer needs to build its own number from its own records.

SHRM's figure is US data and covers hiring only (SHRM, 2022). Total replacement cost depends on seniority, sector and how long a vacancy stays open. A useful local calculation adds the cost of recruiting, the weeks a new hire takes to reach full output, and the work left undone in the gap.

What do places with high maternal employment show?

The OECD reports that 71% of mothers across its member countries were employed in 2021. More than 85% were employed in Slovenia and Portugal. The OECD measure covers women aged 15 to 64 with at least 1 child aged 0 to 14 (OECD, 2023). The data records outcomes, so causes need policy studies.

In the US, the labour force participation rate for mothers with children under 18 was 73.9% in 2025. That measure includes mothers looking for work (BLS, 2026).

Quebec offers a tested example. The province introduced $5 a day childcare in the late 1990s. Employment among married mothers of children aged 0 to 4 then rose 7.7 percentage points relative to the rest of Canada, or 14.5% of baseline participation (Baker, Gruber and Milligan, 2005). A separate study of the same policy also found a large and statistically significant effect on mothers' labour supply (Lefebvre and Merrigan, 2008). Estimates differ by study, sample and definition, so treat any single percentage with care.

Which workplace policy is linked to mothers staying in full-time work?

A 2026 survey of 213 US women found that schedule, career and leave flexibility were stronger predictors of staying in full-time work than the other forms compared. Schedule flexibility accounted for the largest share. Top management support strengthened the link between needing flexibility and using it (Andreassi et al., 2026).

The study is a single cross-sectional survey, so it shows an association. ONS data shows how unevenly flexibility is held in the UK. In 2021, 14.5% of UK mothers worked flexible hours, compared with 12.3% of fathers. A further measure showed 33.3% of mothers with an agreed special working arrangement, against 23.6% of fathers (ONS, 2022).

UK law gives every employee outside Northern Ireland the right to request flexible working from their first day in a job. Employers must discuss a request before refusing it and decide within 2 months (GOV.UK, 2026). A right to ask leaves the answer with the individual manager, which makes access to flexibility a lottery for mothers in identical roles.

Does flexible working harm a mother's career?

It can, depending on how the policy is framed. Managers in experiments rated flexible workers as less committed when flexibility was tied to personal life or aimed at parents. A 2026 study of managers in Singapore found that this penalty fell significantly when remote working was a policy for all workers (Gender, Work & Organization, 2026).

In that study, remote working framed as only for mothers or only for parents kept the penalty in place for everyone and made it larger for mothers. The sample was Singaporean managers reading hypothetical scenarios, so UK employers should read it as a signal of direction.

Earlier work points the same way. When managers put flexible working down to productivity, employees were rated as more committed and rewarded accordingly. When managers put it down to personal life, a laboratory experiment showed lower commitment ratings, though the field study did not confirm that penalty (Leslie et al., 2012). A policy written for everyone and judged on output gives managers no reason to read flexibility as a sign of lower commitment.

What would better support look like from the system's side?

3 layers decide whether a mother stays. The state sets leave and funded childcare. The employer sets how flexibility works day to day, who stays in the loop during leave, and how commitment is judged. The employer layer is the one each organisation controls.

The state layer is partly in place. Statutory Maternity Leave is 52 weeks (GOV.UK, 2026), and Statutory Maternity Pay is paid for up to 39 weeks (GOV.UK, 2026). Working parents in England may get 30 hours of funded childcare a week for children aged 9 months to 4 years (GOV.UK, 2026). Employers can help with the costs that remain, as set out in how employers can help with childcare costs.

The employer layer is where design choices count. A written flexible working policy open to every employee removes the need for a mother to justify herself. A pattern agreed before leave starts spares her repeated negotiation each term. Output measures replace availability as the test of commitment. Keeping people on project lists and promotion rounds during leave protects progression. Fathers and other carers using the same policy stop flexibility reading as a mothers' concession. The reasons mothers give for leaving are covered in why mothers leave work after maternity leave. Recent changes to the law are in the Employment Rights Act 2025 guide for pregnant staff and returners.

Patagonia's former chief executive wrote in 2016 that for the previous 5 years, 100% of the company's mothers had returned to work after maternity leave. The company also runs on-site childcare at its Ventura headquarters (Patagonia, 2016). That is the company's own claim from a US business, and it shows a single combination of policies. No single policy explains retention in any of the evidence above.

This is general information, not legal advice.

About Matresa

Matresa is a pre-launch UK digital maternal health platform that offers a single personalised pathway from pregnancy to the child's second birthday. An anonymised, aggregated dashboard gives employers insight into how ready their returning parents are. It was founded by Mari-Carmen Sanchez-Morris, a mother of 3 with a nursing background in paediatric intensive care.

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